Facilitating algorithm visualization creation and adoption in education

Abstract

The research question of this thesis is: How can we develop algorithm animations (AA) and AA systems further to better facilitate the creation and adoption of AA in education?

The motivation for tackling this issue is that algorithm animation has not been widely used in teaching computer science. One of the main reasons for not taking full advantage of AA in teaching is the lack of time on behalf of the instructors. Furthermore, there is a shortage of ready-made, good quality algorithm visualizations.

The main contributions are as follows:

Effortless Creation of Algorithm Animation. We define a Taxonomy of Effortless Creation of Algorithm Animations. In addition, we introduce a new approach for teachers to create animations by allowing effortless on-the-fly creation of algorithm animations by applying visual algorithm simulation through a simple user interface. Proposed Standard for Algorithm Animation language. We define a Taxonomy of Algorithm Animation Languages to help comparing the different AA languages. The taxonomy and work by an international working group is used to define a new algorithm animation language, eXtensible Algorithm Animation Language, XAAL. Applications of XAAL in education. We provide two different processing approaches for using and producing XAAL animations with existing algorithm animation systems. In addition, we have a framework aiding in this integration as well as prototype implementations of the processes. Furthermore, we provide a novel solution to the problem of seamlessly integrating algorithm animations with hypertext. In our approach, the algorithm animation viewer is implemented purely with JavaScript and HTML. Finally, we introduce a processing model to easily produce lecture slides for a common presentation tool of XAAL animations.