Software Architecture and Characteristic Functions in Learning Management System "NOBASU"

Recently, a learning management system (LMS) using the Web technology has been used at many educational institutions. To support educational activities in our department, we have independently developed an LMS called NOBASU (NetwOrk-Based Assistant System for University education) to improve the quality while reducing costs. Besides conventional functions in LMS, NOBASU has incorporated several original ones such as the keyword submission function for preparing and reviewing class contents. In this paper, we present two new characteristic functions for the Java programming education in NOBASU. The Java code test function verifies the specifications in source codes from students using the test-driven development (TDD) method. The Java test code submission function requests students to submit test codes so that they can generate detailed program specifications by themselves.