Glossary

Some everyday words have a specific meaning on Dodona. This page defines those terms in plain language, in alphabetical order. Where a fuller page about a term exists, the entry links to it.

Activity

Anything in a course you can work on: an exercise or a reading activity. Activities are grouped into series. See the FAQ about exercises and reading activities.

Annotation

A comment attached to the code of a submission, usually to a specific line. Teachers add annotations to give you feedback on your code, and questions you ask about your code appear the same way. The interface mostly calls them comments. See the FAQ about questions and comments.

API token

A secret code that lets an external application or script access Dodona on your behalf, without needing your password. You can create one in your profile settings. See the FAQ about API tokens.

Course

The place where a teacher gathers the learning material for one group of students: a collection of series with activities. You register for a course to work on its activities and track your progress. See the guide about courses.

Course administrator

A user who manages a course, typically your teacher. Course administrators can change the content and settings of the course, see the submissions of all course members, and grade them. See the course management guide.

Deadline

A date and time a teacher sets on a series. You can still submit after the deadline, but only solutions submitted before it count towards completing the series on time. See what the statuses next to activities mean.

Evaluation

A tool teachers use to review the submissions for a series: it collects each student's last submission before a deadline, so the teacher can go through them, add annotations, and optionally grade them. See the grading guide.

Exercise

An activity that asks you to solve a problem, usually by writing code. Each time you hand in a solution, Dodona checks it automatically with a judge and shows you the feedback right away. See the guide about solving exercises.

Judge

The software that automatically checks your submissions for an exercise and generates the feedback you see, from a simple correct/wrong verdict to detailed test results. Each exercise is linked to a judge, usually one built for a specific programming language. See the judges reference.

Reading activity

An activity with only text to read, sometimes called a content page: there is nothing to submit, and you mark it as read yourself. See how to mark a reading activity as read.

Repository

A Git repository containing the source files of exercises and reading activities. Teachers who create their own activities manage them in a repository, and Dodona keeps the activities on the platform in sync with it. See the guide about creating exercises.

Saved annotation

An annotation a teacher has saved to reuse, so they can quickly give the same feedback on other submissions where it applies. See how to save and reuse comments.

Series

An ordered group of activities within a course, for example one series per week or per topic. A series can have a deadline. See the exercise series management guide.

Submission

One attempt at solving an exercise. Every time you click Submit, Dodona stores your code as a new submission and has the judge check it; you can always look back at your earlier submissions and their feedback. See the guide about understanding feedback.