Lessons Learned from 6 Years of a Remote Programming Challenge Activity with Automatic Supervision

In an ``Introduction to Programming'' course dedicated to first-year students, many students tend to procrastinate and do not autonomously process step by step new topics taught over time. In response to that trend, a tool (called CAFÉ) was implemented to supervise a remote activity spread over the semester, by instantaneously correcting students' exercises and providing feedback to guide them in refining their solutions. This paper presents and discusses the current impact of the system on students’ learning, based on six years of activity. The results validate the high potential of such a tool, but also highlight many students do not take advantage of that opportunity to boost their learning. That opens doors to some significant upgrades in the tool, mainly consisting in offering a closer guidance to students through a larger range of regular activities. While CAFÉ was initially standing as an isolated tool offering correction and feedbacks, this paper advocates for CAFÉ becoming an integral part of the course, leading to a consistent synergy between in-person and continuous remote learning.