The Online Assignment System (OAS) is a web-based assignment submission and electronic marking system for students at Queensland University of Technology. The OAS is used by students and teachers as a replacement for the old manual system which has been in place for 12 years. Both the old and new systems share many good points but the new system has several advantages for students and staff. Students find it convenient to use the OAS to submit assignments from home and later retrieve their marked assignments through the web rather than having to collect hard copies from the university. Online submission of assignments has not been well received by lecturers in the past because of the perceived difficulty of electronic marking and providing adequate feedback but this problem has been overcome by including a Java application (called F2M2), which is used to mark and insert comments through a graphical user interface. F2M2 is particularly useful for programming assignments, as the marker can compile and run students’ programs at the push of a button without having to start a language compiler separately.

Keywords: web-based assignment submission; electronic marking; online examinations