A self-checking interface for MATLAB-based interactive exercises

Effective computer-based educational learning tools must engage the student with significant questions to deepen understanding of the subject. These t ools should also Provide immediate feedback to the student and, if necessar y, direct the student into remedial work. This paper describes the construc tion of a self-checking interface that can be used to evaluate student answ ers to challenging questions in an interactive computer-based educational t ool. This self-checking interface has been implemented using MATLAB. An exa mple exercise, taken from a computer-based tutorial that uses this self-che cking interface, demonstrates how the interface operates.