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Assignment Leaderboard

The assignment leaderboard feature allows you to create competitive assignments where students can see their rankings based on autograder scores. This feature is optional and can be enabled on a per-assignment basis.

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Enabling Leaderboards

To enable a leaderboard for an assignment:
  1. Navigate to the assignment configuration
  2. Find the Leaderboard settings section
  3. Toggle the leaderboard feature on
  4. Configure privacy and display settings
Leaderboards are designed to be less cluttering and more optional. Students who don’t want to engage with competitive elements can easily ignore them.

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Leaderboard Configuration

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Privacy Settings

Configure how student information is displayed:
  • Public with names: All students see full rankings with real names
  • Anonymous rankings: Students see rankings but identities are hidden
  • Personal view only: Students only see their own rank and score

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Display Options

Customize what information appears on the leaderboard:
  • Show scores: Display actual autograder scores
  • Show submission times: Include when submissions were made
  • Rank ties: How to handle students with identical scores

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Use Cases

Leaderboards work well for:

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Optimization Challenges

Create assignments where students compete to:
  • Write the fastest algorithm
  • Use the least memory
  • Achieve the highest efficiency score

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Performance Competitions

Design problems where:
  • Multiple solutions are correct but vary in quality
  • Students can iteratively improve their submissions
  • Extra credit is awarded to top performers

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Engagement and Motivation

Use leaderboards to:
  • Add a fun, competitive element to assignments
  • Encourage students to optimize their solutions
  • Create friendly competition within the class

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Best Practices

Make leaderboards optional and low-stakes. They should enhance learning, not create excessive stress or competition.

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Recommendations

  1. Communicate clearly: Explain that leaderboards are optional and for fun
  2. Provide opt-out: Allow students to hide their names if they prefer
  3. Balance competition: Don’t make leaderboard rankings worth significant grade points
  4. Focus on learning: Emphasize that understanding concepts matters more than rankings
  5. Monitor engagement: Ensure leaderboards aren’t causing undue stress

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Managing Leaderboards

As an instructor, you can:
  • View full rankings: See all students and their scores
  • Export data: Download leaderboard data for analysis
  • Disable mid-assignment: Turn off leaderboards if they’re causing issues
  • Reset rankings: Clear the leaderboard if needed (e.g., after fixing autograder bugs)

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Technical Details

Leaderboards are calculated based on:
  1. Active submission: Only the student’s currently active submission counts
  2. Autograder score: The score from the autograder component
  3. Tie-breaking: Earlier submissions rank higher in case of identical scores
  4. Real-time updates: Rankings update automatically as new submissions are processed