Rockford J. Ross

Evaluating the educational impact of visualization

The educational impact of visualization depends not only on how well students learn when they use it, but also on how widely it is used by instructors. Instructors believe that visualization helps students learn. The integration of visualization techniques in classroom instruction, however, has fallen far short of its potential. This paper considers this disconnect, identifying its cause in a failure to understand the needs of a key member in the hierarchy of stakeholders, namely the instructor. We describe these needs and offer guidelines for both the effective deployment of visualizations and the evaluation of instructor satisfaction. We then consider different forms of evaluation and the impact of student learning styles on learner outcomes.

Enhancing learning management systems to better support computer science education

Many individual instructors -- and, in some cases, entire universities -- are gravitating towards the use of comprehensive learning management systems (LMSs), such as Blackboard and Moodle, for managing courses and enhancing student learning. As useful as LMSs are, they are short on features that meet certain needs specific to computer science education. On the other hand, computer science educators have developed--and continue to develop-computer-based software tools that aid in management, teaching, and/or learning in computer science courses. In this report we provide an overview of current CS specific on-line learning resources and guidance on how one might best go about extending an LMS to include such tools and resources. We refer to an LMS that is extended specifically for computer science education as a Computing Augmented Learning Management System, or CALMS. We also discuss sound pedagogical practices and some practical and technical principles for building a CALMS. However, we do not go into details of creating a plug-in for some specific LMS. Further, the report does not favor one LMS over another as the foundation for a CALMS.

WebLab! A universal and interactive teaching, learning, and laboratory environment for the World Wide Web

Introduction It’s here: : :it’s finally here! For those of us designing and/or using program, algorithm, and computer science concept animation systems, the one universal environment we have yearned for is finally available. That environment is the World Wide Web in concert with standard Web browsers, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and Java. Now, educational software systems that have historically been tied to a particular type of computer and operating system can be ported to Java and made universally available on the World Wide Web. The potential impact of the alliances between this newly emerging technology, educational animation systems, and hypertext delivery mechanisms on standard college instruction—as well as distance learning, virtual universities, and even high school teaching—is profound. The World Wide Web and its browsers are already finding many uses in computer science education. It is used for mail, news, local syllabi, research assignments, class notes, and even hypertextbooks. In this paper—in keeping with one of the focuses of SIGCSE ’97 (papers with a futurist theme)— we look into the future at the next step in this evolving use of the Web for educational purposes, a step made possible by Java and Java-ready browsers, by presenting the impending role of the World Wide Web as a universal medium for the dissemination and use of computer science animation systems. A brief review of animation tools is given, followed by a short description of known work that is progressing in Webbased computer science animation systems. Then, our own work in program, algorithm, and concept animation underway at Montana State University is discussed in more detail. We close by presenting some formal evaluations of student learning in the presence of animation systems, followed by a

Hypertextbooks: Animated, Active Learning, Comprehensive Teaching and Learning Resources for the Web

Computer-generated visualizations have been used in computer science education for many years, most notably in the form of algorithm animations. Although appealing and often useful, the anecdotal evidence is that these visualizations are seldom used in the classroom. There are many reasons for this, including platform dependence, cumbersome installation and maintenance procedures, and--perhaps most influential-- a lack of integration with other course materials. Hypertextbooks provide one solution to these problems. Designed as complete teaching and learning resources for the web, hypertextbooks incorporate many features for teaching and learning that vastly extend the capabilities of traditional textbooks. Along with traditional textual presentations of the material to be learned, hypertextbooks allow for different learning paths through the material for different learning needs, an abundance of pictures and illustrations, video clips where helpful, audio, and--most importantly--interactive, active learning visualizations of key concepts. In this paper we discuss the hypertextbook concept by way of the hypertextbook project currently underway at Montana State University.

Dancing with DynaLab: endearing the science of computing to students

INTRODUCTION How can we entice young students into computer science? How can we convey—much earlier than is common—the excitement of our discipline to students who may only have a passing interest in programming and computing, encouraging them to continue studies in computer science? How can we keep students who have initially committed to computer science enthralled with their chosen discipline? These, of course, are specific questions that echo much broader concerns of education: how do we motivate young people to consider careers as scientists and engineers in general? Much sentiment has been expressed in both professional circles and the popular media regarding the need to excite students about science and engineering at an early age. The hope is that young people will not only acquire a better understanding of the world around them, but that more of them (especially women) will choose careers in science. With respect to the science of computing, these questions imply that the foundations of the discipline of computing be somehow presented in clear fashion early on in a student’s experience. By ‘(foundations of the discipline of computing” we mean what is generally captured by the term aigorithmics (see, for example, [Har92])—the world of interesting problems, algorithms as solutions to problems, unsolvable problems, intractable problems, and efficient solutions to tractable problems. In this paper we present one approach to reaching this objective through the use of DynaLab, a software system designed for performing experiments with programs.

Tying it all together: creating self-contained, animated, interactive, Web-based resources for computer science education

For many years now, the annual SIGCSE Symposium has been the primary coming-out party for new software systems aimed at computer science education. Many nice systems have been developed and refined over the years that use interaction and animation to engage students in learning. In spite of their evident utility, most of these systems have languished, being used only at their home institutions and a few others. The reason can be stated succinctly: platform dependence. Pick your platform. There were systems that ran only with X-windows, some that worked only on Sun stations, others that required Microsoft Windows 95, several that demanded a Macintosh, and so on. Not only did this hinder the use of these systems in formal classroom settings, but it also made it virtually impossible for all students in a course to have off-campus access to the systems, a desirable capability for learning. A good (but incomplete) review of visualization software for education is found in [4]. Then came the World Wide Web and increasingly sophisticated browsers. Our mouths watered at the thought of what these new technologies promised for enhanced computer science education. The turning point, though, was the introduction of the Java Virtual Machine, which allowed educational software to be developed in the platform independent fashion of the Web. Very suddenly, the rules of the game changed, and the paradigm shifted [ 11. The problem of platform dependence vanished (. . .well, pretty much, anyway) overnight. The learning curve for students adjusting to a new software system dropped dramatically, as nearly all students

Engaging students with active learning resources: hypertextbooks for the web

The World Wide Web has mesmerized educators for over a decade now with its tacit promise of platform independent, universal educational resource delivery. Indeed, many useful and exciting educational tools and distance learning courseware have been developed for the Web. On the other hand, some of the really fascinating educational resources— envisioned some years ago—remain elusive. One of these is the active learning hypertextbook. In this paper we discuss the concept of an active learning hypertextbook, pointing out the state of the art, the technical problems to be surmounted, and our own research and development leading to hypertextbook resources in the Webworks Laboratory at Montana State University.

Development of XML-based tools to support user interaction with algorithm visualization

As a report of a working group at ITiCSE 2005, this paper represents a vision of the use of XML specifications and tools in algorithm visualization, particularly with regard to supporting user interaction. A detailed description is given of how an interesting event to be visualized is decomposed, combined with interactive questions, narratives, control flow code and metadata, and finally rendered into graphical primitive and transformation specifications. The heart of the paper is our discussion of XML specifications for content generation (the object being visualized), interactive questions, and graphical primitives and transformations, with briefer discussions of narratives and metadata. Examples are provided for each in an appendix, with fuller details to be published on an associated website that we hope will become a source of future standards in this area. In conclusion, the approach of the working group is discussed, and important remaining challenges are identified.

Realizing the promise of visualization in the theory of computing

Progress on a hypertextbook on the theory of computing is presented. The hypertextbook is a novel teaching and learning resource built around web technologies that incorporates text, sound, pictures, illustrations, slide shows, video clips, and---most importantly---active learning models of the key concepts of the theory of computing into an integrated resource. Active learning models currently exist for finite state automata, regular expressions, regular grammars, the pumping lemma for regular languages, context- free grammars, LL(1) parsing, and program execution. The seamless interweaving of these components into a browser-ready whole will help realize the goal of integrating visualization aids into theory courses.

DYNALAB: a dynamic computer science laboratory infrastructure featuring program animation (abstract)

DYNALAB, short for D YNAmic LABomtoTy, is a software system that supports interactive, highly visual, and motivating lecture demonstrations and laboratory experiments in computer science. In its current form— Version 1. O—DYNALAB consists of a virtual computer called the Education Machine (E-machine for short) [Pat89], an E-machine Emulator [Bir90], a Pascal compiler for the E-machine [Go093], an Ada subset compiler for the E-machine [Po094], comprehensive program animators for X-windows [Pra94] and MS-windows [Bor95], and an extensive library of programs. The rest of this paper describes DYNALAB in more detail.