This project is about creating an XML exchange format for variable programming exercises. The project is maintained by members of the ProFormA group within the eCULT project (www.ecult-niedersachsen.de).
ProFormA stands for FORMatives Assessment of PROgramming exercises. Such exercises are for example Java programming exercises which are automatically assessed by JUnit, compilation and checkstyle tests. Because it is time consuming to create such exercises, it is helpful for lecturers if they can exchange exercises with other lecturers. Because different universities employ different tools for implementing such exercises, an export-import format is needed to facilitate exchanging exercises. That is the purpose of the ProFormA-XML format.
The variable ProFormA format extends the ProFormA task element by specifications of variability and materialization. Variable tasks are task templates from which several individual tasks can be generated automatically. The generated tasks could be given to different students in order to reduce cheating or a single student could request for additional task variants for intensified practice.
The variable ProFormA-XML format is currently in incubating state.