J. Ángel Velázquez Iturbide

Multiple Usability Evaluations of a Program Animation Tool

SRec (System for RECursion animation) is an educational software tool that allows creating animated interactive visualizations of recursive algorithms written in the Java language. In this paper, we present the results of four usability evaluation sessions held with our students. Usability was mainly evaluated with respect to easiness of use, adequacy to the task, quality, and if the user liked it. This untypical sequence of usability evaluations also has resulted in some interesting lessons on the development of educational software.SRec (System for RECursion animation) is an educational software tool that allows creating animated interactive visualizations of recursive algorithms written in the Java language. In this paper, we present the results of four usability evaluation sessions held with our students. Usability was mainly evaluated with respect to easiness of use, adequacy to the task, quality, and if the user liked it. This untypical sequence of usability evaluations also has resulted in some interesting lessons on the development of educational software.

Visualization of Syntax Trees for Language Processing Courses

This paper describes the educational tool VAST. We designed VAST to be used in compiler and language processing courses. The current version allows generating and visualizing syntax trees and their construction process. The main advantages of VAST follow: it is designed to be as independent from the parser generator as possible, it allows students to visualize the behaviour of parsers they develop, and it has an interface designed to easily handle huge syntax trees. We describe different ways of using VAST in educational settings as well as a usability evaluation.