The Capture, Analyze, and Prevent Bugs (CAP Bugs) project at Utah State University educates students to proactively avoid bugs by collecting and classifying data about mistakes made by novice programmers. Bug data is shared with students and faculty. As a result, students feel less isolated and more confident and faculty members are given the means to promptly address issues in their courses.
The project includes a web application that recommends bugs to avoid in the future based on bugs logged by students; a website that contains videos and exercises about how to identify common bugs, why they occur, and how to fix them; and course materials based on real bugs from real students.
In addition, a system for software testing competitions is under development. Testing competitions provide an alternative to programming competitions, targeting students with problem solving skills, but lacking extensive programming experience. The software testing competitions appeal to a broader audience and attract women, underrepresented minority students and students with limited exposure to programming.
