In today's digital era, holding algorithmic thinking (AT) skills is crucial, not only in computer science-related fields. These abilities enable individuals to break down complex problems into more manageable steps and create a sequence of actions to solve them. To address the increasing demand for AT assessments in educational settings and the limitations of current methods, this paper introduces the virtual Cross Array Task (CAT), a digital adaptation of an unplugged assessment activity designed to evaluate algorithmic skills in Swiss compulsory education. This tool offers scalable and automated assessment, reducing human involvement and mitigating potential data collection errors. The platform features gesture-based and visual block-based programming interfaces, ensuring its usability for diverse learners, further supported by multilingual capabilities. To evaluate the virtual CAT platform, we conducted a pilot evaluation in Switzerland involving a heterogeneous group of students. The findings show the platform's usability, proficiency and suitability for assessing AT skills among students of diverse ages, development stages, and educational backgrounds, as well as the feasibility of large-scale data collection.

翻译：在当今数字化时代，掌握算法思维（AT）技能至关重要，这不仅限于计算机科学相关领域。这些能力使个体能够将复杂问题分解为更易处理的步骤，并创建解决问题的行动序列。为应对教育环境中对AT评估日益增长的需求及现有方法的局限性，本文介绍了虚拟交叉阵列任务（CAT），这是一种为评估瑞士义务教育阶段算法技能而设计的无屏评估活动的数字化改编版本。该工具提供可扩展的自动化评估，减少人工干预并降低潜在数据收集错误。该平台采用基于手势和可视化积木块的编程界面，确保其对不同学习者的可用性，并辅以多语言功能支持。为评估虚拟CAT平台，我们在瑞士开展了针对异质性学生群体的试点评估。研究结果表明：该平台在可用性、评估效能及适用性方面，能够有效评估不同年龄、发展阶段和教育背景学生的AT技能，并具备大规模数据收集的可行性。