Capabilities and Limitations

Web-CAT can perform a variety of tasks with its many capabilities.

• Web-CAT is built on a plug-in architecture that allows newly developed subsystems to be automatically configured by restarting the application.

• Web-CAT also includes a customizable Grader subsystem that allows instructors to have automated grading and feedback generation.

• Web-CAT incorporates the use of test-driven assignments, which gives students the ability to submit assignments as they develop solutions, rather than once at the end of the assignment. This gives the students continuous concrete and automated feedback on what code they have not tested well enough, style or documentation issues, and what areas the in progarm that could be potential bugs. With Web-CAT's help, students have been able to reduce the amount of bugs in their code by 45%.

• There is also a fault-tolerance built into the system that monitors the Web-CAT software itself to report and correct faults and bugs without affecting the other users or crashing the application.