One of the main problems for introducing informatics into the school curriculum is the lack of trained teachers. In particular, teacher development in programming cannot merely rely on memorizing or intuition. However, there hardly exist educational materials aimed at promoting deep learning of block-based programming. Furthermore, schoolteachers usually are not highly motivated to learn programming. We introduce two engineering practices aimed at schoolteachers' development in the ScratchJr programming language. Firstly, we present a collection of ten programming patterns. They are classified into three categories: visual effects, movement patterns and control patterns. The two former categories deal with multimedia actions while the third category deals with the control of program flow. Secondly, we present guidelines to document ScratchJr programs. The guidelines were inspired by the Block Model of program comprehension but are adapted to the structure of ScratchJr programs by redefining the Block Model matrix as a documentation matrix. In addition, an evaluation of teachers' use of both materials was conducted. About three quarters of the teachers used the patterns, and almost all teachers successfully applied the guidelines. However, teachers' use of some cells of the documentation matrix was dispar. Therefore, some parts of the documentation guidelines were revised, and a final version was elaborated.

Given its simplicity, ScratchJr is a good block-based language to introduce schoolteachers into programming. However, when assessing teachers' mastery of ScratchJr programming, the IDE does not allow storing/loading program files, thus the teachers are required to explain, rather than submitting, their program. We present guidelines to explain (i.e., document) ScratchJr programs. The guidelines presented were inspired in the Block Model of program comprehension, adapted to the structure of ScratchJr programs and refined along several phases. A key phase was the evaluation of teachers' use of a first version of the documentation guidelines. Globally, teachers applied successfully the guidelines, but the analysis of their reports allowed us to identify several issues to revise and enhance. A second version of the guidelines, presented in the paper, was elaborated and validated by applying them to the same ScratchJr programs.

There has been much less debate within the computing research community about teaching algorithms than about teaching introductory programming.However, it is advisable (or even necessary) to hold public discussions about different issues, independently of more focused research efforts.This position paper addresses two themes.Firstly, it advocates for an experiential approach to learning algorithms, as a complement to the more common formal and engineering approaches.We show how visualization and benchmarking can make algorithms more concrete to students and their learning more active and insightful.Secondly, we argue that some conceptual models present in algorithm textbooks are imprecise, or even implicit, making difficult to learn their corresponding topics.We elaborate on this concern by stressing that several algorithm design techniques address a specific class of problems (namely, optimization ones) and by visiting several aspects of three design techniques (greedy algorithms, dynamic programming and branch-and-bound). CCS Concepts•Theory of computation~Design and analysis of algorithms~Algorithm design techniques•Social and professional topics~Professional topics~Computing education~Computing education programs~Computer science education

The last year, we have witnessed the popularization of generative artificial intelligence. Its output includes text, code, image, audio, speech, voice, music, and video. Therefore, it impacts education courses where students are required to elaborate on any of these artifacts. In particular, the generation of code affects informatics courses, where assignments usually ask students to develop and deliver programming code. The impact of generative artificial intelligence on informatics courses has been mainly studied for introductory programming courses. These studies have shown that generative artificial intelligence is able to produce highly sophisticated programs, but also that its results and rationale can be inaccurate. Moreover, the impact of generative artificial intelligence has not been studied for other informatics subjects. In this paper, we present our preliminary experience and proposals on three advanced software courses, namely video games, advanced algorithms and language processors. For the video games course, we present the opportunities of use of generative artificial intelligence and the results of a survey conducted with students on their use to obtain different media products. For the algorithms course, we present the result of a session driven by the instructor on different design techniques, showing the merits and demerits of the answers generated. For the language processors course, a proposal of use of generative artificial intelligence is presented, broken down into the parts of a typical language processor. The paper concludes with some suggestions for instructors.

K-12 computing education research is a rapidly growing field of research, both driven by and driving the implementation of computing as a school and extra-curricular subject globally. Within discipline-based education research, it is a new and emerging field, drawing on fields such as mathematics and science education research for inspiration and theoretical bases. The urgency around investigating effective teaching and learning in computing in school alongside broadening participation has led to much of the field being focused on empirical research. Less attention has been paid to the underlying philosophical assumptions informing the discipline, which might include a critical examination of the rationale for K-12 computing education, its goals and perspectives, and associated inherent values and beliefs. The goals of this research project are to understand the implicit and hidden values, perspectives and goals underpinning computing education at school. This will be achieved through a critical examination of a wide body of literature leading to the development of a categorization and framework.

The information society requires new skills and knowledge about how to cope in a computerized world. Although it is fully assumed in the political and social discourse, it is a neglected subject in formal education. Each nation should analyze how computing is learned in its K-12 education system. This research-to-practice paper presents the report carried out in Spain promoted by two academic associations, which analyzes the state of computing education in Spain in K-12 studies, summarizes some elements of the didactics of computing and analyzes the training received by teachers who will train K-12 students. The report also presents some reflections of the working group in charge, and nine proposals for improvement oriented to policy makers are pointed out.

Algorithm animations are a resource that assists in learning algorithms by visually displaying the behavior of an algorithm at a higher level of abstraction than source code. On the other hand, augmented reality is a technology that allows extending visible reality in a mobile device, which can result in greater emotional well-being for the student. However, it is not clear how to integrate algorithm animations with augmented reality. The article makes two contributions to this concern. On the one hand, we describe an architecture that allows generating interactive algorithm animations, integrating them appropriately in the context of immersive augmented reality. This way the user can watch the source code of the algorithm, augmented with textual explanations, visualizations and animations of its behavior. We illustrate the use of the architecture by instantiating it to the well-known Dijkstra's algorithm, resulting in an augmented reality tool that generates text, 2D and 3D visualizations. On the other hand, the influence of the tool on the user's emotions has been studied by conducting an experience with face-to-face and online students. The results show that, with the joint use of augmented reality and visualizations, the students: experienced significantly more positive than negative emotions, experienced more agitation and stimulation than inactivity or calm, enjoyed as much as they expected, and their feeling of boredom decreased during the experience. However, students felt anxiety from the beginning and it increased with the use of augmented reality. The study also found that the face-to-face or online learning model influences emotions and learning outcomes with augmented reality.

Repositories are a key resource for instructors and students interested in accessing high-quality exercises for either formative or summative assessment. One central concern in the design of repositories is the classification of exercises, which is typically based on a number of criteria. One common criterion in computing education is Bloom taxonomy, which is frequently used to develop and classify assessment tasks. However, the existing literature reports on educators’ difficulties and divergences in the classification of assessment tasks based on Bloom’s taxonomy. The paper makes two proposals aimed at enhancing computing educators’ training in Bloom’s taxonomy: classification of an exercise into several cognitive processes, and provision of computing examples. These recommendations could be used for education in any field of study by using examples specific to the field. Moreover, the paper presents the result of replicating an evaluation of the effect of these recommendations on computing educators. Some results were positive; for instance, decomposing the process to solve a task into several cognitive activities was natural to educators. However, high variation and low accuracy in educators’ classifications persisted. Some lessons were learnt: the period of training should be longer, based on more examples and with more active training activities.

Emotions play an important role in learning. As a part of our research efforts on algorithm education, we planned to evaluate the impact of an educational system to experiment with algorithms on students' emotions. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic changed both the educational context and the educational process. We redesigned our study to inquire two research questions: (a) what is the emotional level of students in the current situation?, and (b) what is the emotional impact of OptimEx on students of an algorithm course? We planned an evaluation in a lab session under mixed conditions, i.e. students could choose between attending physically or virtually. We used the PANAS questionnaire, which allows assessing 20 emotions, classified into positive and negative. The outcomes show that students experienced higher emotional levels for positive emotions than negative. Furthermore, students who attended face-to-face scored stronger emotions. After the session, all students decreased their negative emotional levels, with the students who attended physically also experiencing an increase in positive emotions. Due to the pandemic situation, the study was conducted with less control than we intended, therefore it is better qualified as an exploratory study.

The algorithms course demands high rigor to computing students. Designing an algorithm requires high level of abstraction, and analyzing the algorithm also requires a mathematical apparatus. However, algorithmics is a topic which also is frequently associated to creativity. We conducted an exploratory study of students’ creativity by examining their designs of algorithms for a given problem. In particular, we analyzed their contributions in an assignment, where they were asked to design heuristic algorithms for an optimization problem. Students’ contributed algorithms were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods, and the resulting categories were used to compute three components of creativity (namely fluency, flexibility and originality) as well as global creativity. About half the students hardly were creative, but about one tenth of students exhibited notable creativity.

This "innovative practice" full paper proposes large-scale optimality testing as an alternative means in algorithm courses to address different educational goals. Testing is an engineering activity which is commonly conducted in an informal way in programming and algorithm courses, as well as in a more structured way in software engineering courses. However, the number of test cases commonly used is small. Large-scale testing refers to the inclusion of large numbers of test cases. We have presented in past works how to use it as a didactic tool for greedy and other optimization algorithms. We present here its use with more sophisticated aims: as a debugging tool, to call students' attention to problem preconditions, and to find out counterexamples of the optimality of inexact algorithms. The three innovations are illustrated by their use in the academic year 2019/20 in an algorithms course, with mixed results. We analyze the lessons learnt and outline future lines of instructional intervention.

This research proposes a theoretical research model that integrates personality traits (namely, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion) with motivation (whether external, in terms of third party enforcement, or internal, in terms of self-motivation) in explaining the variance in the Intention to Continue using Massive Open Online Courses (ICM), i.e., MOOCs. Having analyzed a sample of 136 students in Spain using Partial Least Squares (PLS) path analysis, we found that internal motivation plays a significant full mediating role in the effects of personality on ICM for all traits except extraversion. Extraversion is externally motivated, but no evidence was found to support direct or indirect effects on the ICM. None of the above personality traits was found to have any significant direct impact on the ICM. Internal, but not external motivation, was found to influence the ICM significantly. This model explains 49% of the variation in such intention. The implications for employers seeking maximum profit for employees enrolled in MOOCs are highlighted.

It is a well-known fact that different instructors understand Bloom's taxonomy differently, thus they classify given test exercises into different levels of the taxonomy. The article reports on the impact of training instructors on the use of the taxonomy for programming courses with two innovations: encouraging instructors to classify each exercise into several cognitive processes necessary to solve it, and providing them with a wide range of examples of classified programming exercises. We evaluated the impact of these innovations in two training sessions. In the first session, the revised Bloom's taxonomy was introduced to the participants, and in the second session, the innovations were presented. In both sessions, participants were asked to classify ten exercises. The results show that classification into several cognitive processes was natural to instructors. However, other results were mixed. On the one hand, accuracy was increased, and confidence was increased for experienced participants. On the other hand, variation was increased, and confidence was decreased for non-experienced participants. Results show that our approach assists instructors in classifying exercises, but higher increases of expert instructors suggest that longer training is necessary for non-expert instructors.

There are ongoing efforts to identify students' misconceptions of computing topics, including algorithms. The paper addresses students' misconceptions of optimization problems and their corresponding algorithms. Optimization problems are an important class of problems in computer science, thus their associated misconceptions may form a relevant subset of misconceptions on algorithms. The findings presented are based on a number of evaluations conducted in past years. Assignment reports elaborated by students were used as primary materials for qualitative analysis. We present 8 misunderstandings, structured into 5 general themes. As it could be expected, some themes refer to optimization algorithms or to specific algorithm design techniques, but we also identified misconceptions of two more general themes, namely basic concepts of optimization, and basic concepts of problems and algorithms. We discuss implications of the findings for algorithm instruction and curricula.

Bloom's taxonomy is a model that allows characterizing students' learning achievements. It is frequently used in computer science education (CSE), but its use is not straightforward. We present a systematic review conducted to know actual use of the taxonomy in CSE. We found that it was mostly used in programming education and to assess students' performance. A more relevant contribution is a classification of authors' difficulties. In particular, the most often reported difficulty is determining the level of the taxonomy where an assessment task can be classified. In addition, we present authors' hypotheses about possible causes of the difficulties and the solutions they adopted.

Educational technology is very powerful. It allows not only to overcome distance and time, but also to enhance interaction in face-to-face settings. In this session of the eMadrid network, we will present how educational technology can boost education, not only in the large, but especially in the small, in the classroom. We will also show how one can influence and improve the other.

While teaching the “Advanced Algorithms” course for several years, we have recurrently found a number of students' difficulties and misconceptions on algorithms. We successfully addressed interventions for some of these problems, but we wanted a more holistic approach. Based on recommendations from cognitive load theory and variation theory, we have developed or modified different materials in the course: lecture notes, worked examples, and quizzes. We present such developments and the results of evaluating quizzes and assignments. Results are partially satisfactory but there is room for further enhancements. We identify the topics that deserve more elaboration. In addition, we recommend to force all the students to answer quizzes, for instance as a prerequisite to assignments.

Algorithm visualizations can be structured or presented in different ways: animation, multiple algorithms, etc. In this paper, we present a presentation format that has hardly been explored, namely to display simultaneously visualizations of a given algorithm for several test cases. By similarity with other presentation formats, we call it the "multiple executions" technique. We illustrate this presentation format with a history-preserving graphical representation, namely recursion trees. Multiple executions composed of recursion trees provide at a glance a view of the behavior of an algorithm in different situations. We illustrate their application to a number of issues in algorithm courses. We also report on two evaluations conducted on the effects of structured multiple executions on students' comprehension of complex recursive algorithms. The results show some statistically significant differences on students' skills for some design tasks.

Dynamic programming is an algorithm design technique that is very difficult to learn. In this paper, we introduce an extension of the recursion visualization system SRec, intended to support some phases of the systematic development of dynamic programming algorithms: generation of recursion trees, checking redundancy in an adequate recursion tree, generation of the dependency graph associated to that recursion tree, and matching the graph to a table. These facilities require high degree of interactivity to be effective. We have successfully applied the new version of SRec to a number of dynamic programming algorithms in an algorithm course. We have also evaluated the performance of two groups of students in a recursion removal task: an experimental group using SRec and a control group using traditional means. Many of the results were similar for both groups. However, the experimental group did the task with higher confidence and was more efficient in some issues, while the control group was more persistent in one task.

In Computer Science Education there is a tendency to implement active learning paradigms where students are the focus of the educational process. An instantiation of these learning methods are gaming environments. We present ProGames, a system for learning programming skills through a leveled set of visually-attractive and interactive programming games in Greenfoot, categorized by student's likes, offering them solutions to sets of problems that they really enjoy or like most. We present a combined evaluation of usability (first) done during the academic course 2012-13 in three Computer Science Degrees and an evaluation of appealing for the students (second) based on the organization in games categories done during the academic course 2013-14. The combination of both evaluations suggests that offering students a set of serious games that meets their likes really increases their appeal for the games and therefore for learning with them. We present this experience to encourage academia to propose their students learning materials which really are appealing to them and why not? Fun.

When teaching in university courses, one of the main problems is the students' lack of motivation for everyday study. Learning management systems (LMS) provide a set of tools that students must handle to follow the course, but usually students need additional aid to effectively mastering these tools. We present here Merlin-Know, a new module for the Moodle LMS to help students do extra work and reviewing on-line. It is based on a virtual teacher who guides, motivates and encourages students. We also show two kinds of evaluation. First, the system was used for revising the activities of students along the semester. We conclude that Merlin-Know has a statistically positive influence on students' learning outcomes, obtaining a positive correlation for all difficulty levels. Second, we conducted a usability evaluation to assess the acceptance by students' and to detect ways of improvement. Average students said that Merlin-Know was useful and helped them to be more effective and productive, it was easy to learn and use and it has a friendly interface, and they easily remembered how to use it.

We present a replication at ESPOCH (an Ecuadorian university) of the well-known multinational, multiinstitutional study conducted by a working group at the ITiCSE 2004 conference, known as the Leeds group. The paper has three main contributions. Firstly, we found that most of the results are in common with the Leeds group ten years after. Secondly, we found some interesting differences, specific of the Ecuadorian context. ESPOCH students performed worse than students evaluated by the Leeds group. They also had more problems than expected with some predictive questions, as well as with some constructs of the C language. These problems may be explained by lower intrinsic motivation, by their reluctance to analyze code, and by some pedagogical decisions on programming courses. Thirdly, we did not find significant differences between male and female students, although we detected some tendencies. From the research point of view, we refined the analysis methodology used by the Leeds group. From a practical point of view, findings can be used at the university to enhance the quality of their programming education.

In Computer Science Education there is a tendency to implement active learning paradigms where students are the focus of the educational process. An instantiation of these learning methods are gaming environments. We present ProGames, a system for learning programming skills through a leveled set of visually-attractive and interactive programming games in Greenfoot, categorized by student's likes offering them solutions to sets of problems that they really enjoy or like most. The system has been evaluated during the academic course 2012-13 in three Computer Science Degrees and our results indicate that using ProGames had a most positive influence in the students learning. Moreover, the subjective opinion of students reflects that they really enjoyed working with the system and increased the engagement with the course.

Greedy algorithms constitute an apparently simple algorithm design technique, but its learning goals are not simple to achieve. We present a didactic method aimed at promoting active learning of greedy algorithms. The method is focused on the concept of selection function, and is based on explicit learning goals. It mainly consists of an experimental method and the interactive system, GreedEx, that supports it. We also present our experience of five years using the didactic method and the evaluations we conducted to refine it, which are of two kinds: usability evaluations of GreedEx and analysis of students’ reports. Usability evaluations revealed a number of opportunities of improvement for GreedEx, and the analysis of students’ reports showed a number of misconceptions. We made use of these findings in several ways, mainly: improving GreedEx, elaborating lecture notes that address students’ misconceptions, and adapting the class and lab sessions and materials. As a consequence of these actions, our didactic method currently satisfies its initial goals. The article has two main contributions. First, the didactic method itself can be valuable for computer science educators in their teaching of algorithms. Secondly, the refinement process we have carried out, which was a multifaceted, medium-term action research, can be of interest to researchers of technology-supported computing education, since it illustrates how the didactic method was integrated into our educational practice.

This paper has two contributions. Firstly, we present the results of using observations as a complementary method to evaluate an active approach to learning greedy algorithms based on the interactive assistant GreedEx. Two kinds of observations were conducted: questions to the teacher, and students' activity. Observations were useful in two ways: they reinforced findings of two evaluation methods ?usability questionnaires and analysis of students' reports?, and they allowed identifying new, interesting data to further enhance our approach. A second contribution is the methodological lessons learnt about how to use observations as a research method. In particular, we found human observation useful for some purposes but not with respect to software usage.

In this paper we study two different approaches to using program animations with educational aims: their construction by students -a constructivist and active approach- and their vision -a less active approach. In addition, we compare both approaches to a traditional teaching methodology where animations are not used. We have conducted a long-term evaluation with functional program animations using an existing IDE with visualization features called WinHIPE. Our results are mixed. Students have a positive opinion about the animations, either viewing or constructing them. While the viewing approach improves some aspect of knowledge acquisition, both approaches decrease the fail-rate. Finally, the construction approach improves the students' attitude towards the subject. Therefore, both uses of program animations should be integrated in the teaching methodology.

Our work lies within the collaborative approach to learning CS1. We developed an instructional framework for collaborative learning (named CIF) that is oriented by educational objectives at the analysis level of Bloom's taxonomy. Moreover, the framework is supported by a platform (named MoCAS) of collaborative tools delivered with mobile devices. In this paper an experiment is presented to evaluate the educational effectiveness of CIF and MoCAS vs. three different learning approaches. We selected a topic representative of analysis tasks, namely scope of identifiers. The experiment was conducted with four groups, respectively using a classical lecture format, a collaborative approach, the CIF framework, and CIF plus the MoCAS tool. The experiment obtains statistically significant results, showing enhanced learning with the joint use of CIF and MoCAS.

In this paper we study two different approaches to using program animations with educational aims: their construction by students -a constructivist and active approach- and their vision -a less active approach. In addition, we compare both approaches to a traditional teaching methodology where animations are not used. We have conducted an experiment with functional program animations using an existing IDE with visualization features called WinHIPE. We have analyzed the results in terms of Bloom's Taxonomy and the complexity of the topics covered. We have detected learning improvements in high levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, namely analysis and synthesis. Moreover, our results show that program animations are unnecessary for simple topics, support the joint use of vision and construction tasks in medium-complexity topics, and recommend vision tasks together with the typical methodology but without the use of animations in the most complex topics.

Some years ago we presented a novel approach to the active learning of greedy algorithms. The approach was two-fold: an experimental method and the interactive assistant GreedEx that supports it. In this paper we present a refinement of the different elements of our approach, based on our experience of 5 years using and evaluating it in a course on algorithms. Firstly, usability evaluations were conducted to check the adequacy of GreedEx to its intended aims, so they guided the evolution of GreedEx. Secondly, the analysis of students' reports allowed us to identify unexpected misconceptions, which convinced us of the necessity of several didactic interventions. Our findings suggest that we succeeded both in obtaining an attractive and effective tool and in removing severe students' misconceptions. We consider that the paper is interesting to CS education researchers because of its specific contributions to the teaching of algorithms, and also as an example of a multifaceted, medium-term CS education research.

We present Merlin-Mo, a complete interactions analysis system that fits into any running Moodle LMS and provides teachers with all the information they need about how their students are working within the course. The system provides with both: self configured interfaces, for easy data gathering, and a wide variety of data representations, including statistical and interactive visualizations.

Mapping the specification IMS Learning Design and the tracking system we have developed and have been using for several years, called Merlin-Mo, is a logical step forward on interoperability between e-Learning tracking systems and specifications. In order to increase the best acceptance of the specifications into the widespread world of e-Learning systems and to ensure the standardization of the outputs from the systems to be used in others.

The difficulties Computer Science (CS) students encounter with solving problems have been documented extensively. The literature in CS education (CSE) provides many successful ways to enhance students' performance in problem-solving. Nevertheless, those difficulties have been reported to persist. This has prompted us to develop a Problem-Solving Teaching Guide (PSTG) that emphasizes a structured teaching model. This PSTG was used by our undergraduate university instructors. We investigated its effect on students' performance and documented students' attitudes towards the PSTG.

This paper presents the evaluation of an educational tool focused on the visualization of the symbol table in the context of a compiler course. In a first evaluation we used simulation exercises and tested basic concepts of symbol tables. We detected efficiency improvements, students who used the tool completed the exercises with the same grading and significantly faster than the students who did not use the tool. In addition students' opinion was positive. In a second evaluation we used more active tasks, and tested students' skills on writing parser specifications regarding symbol table management. We have detected significant improvements. Students who used the tool outperformed those who did not use the tool in a 22%.

In this paper we argue that the most typical instruction method used to teach greedy algorithms is inadequate at achieving certain learning goals and we present several contributions to alleviate this situation. Our first group of contributions highlights the role of selection functions and proposes separate treatment in their discovery and proof of optimality. For discovery, we outline some interesting cases of selection functions and for proofs, we examine the role of counterexamples. Furthermore, we argue that their separation provides more opportunities for instructional activities. Our second group of contributions concerns coding greedy algorithms. We discuss the role and adequacy of the template in current use, and also the role of sorting candidates and how to implement sorting.

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.

No abstract available.

In this demonstration we present VAST, a visualization tool to support teaching language processors. On the one hand, VAST provides an API that allows generating visualizations of syntax trees independently of the parser generator. On the other hand, VAST provides a GUI with multiple views: the source code, the stack and the syntax tree.

The design of tail recursive algorithms may require thinking about iteration rather than recursion. This paper provides a methodology for deriving tail recursive functions that is based on declarative programming and the concept of function generalization, which allow to avoid iterative thinking.

Greedy algorithms are one of the most common algorithm design techniques. Despite their apparent simplicity, their design is a demanding task. As a consequence, they are usually taught and learnt in a passive way. In this paper, we make a new proposal aimed at active learning of greedy algorithms. The paper contains two main contributions. First, we introduce a novel approach to their active learning, based on experimentation with and evaluation of alternative greedy strategies for a given problem. Second, we present a family of interactive assistants designed to support this approach. The assistants were evaluated for their usability in real lab situations, having obtained high scores from students as well as useful information to enhance them.

SRec is an animation system of recursion intended to assist in algorithm courses. We present the main contributions of version 1.1. First, SRec fully supports any kind of recursion. Second, it provides three additional graphical representations for divide-and-conquer algorithms. Finally, it is highly interactive to promote an exploratory style of learning.

This special issue presents extended versions of six papers presented at the 5th Program Visualization Workshop (PVW’08). The articles deal with many of the issues relevant to program and algorithm visualization in education. This foreword introduces these issues to better understand the challenges addressed by every article, and their relevance, as well as the articles featured. These issues are evaluation of program and algorithm visualization, integration of visualization and narratives into hypertextbooks, embedding of interactive quizzes into visualizations, and several classes of program visualization.

This article reviews successful educational experiences in using program and algorithm visualizations (PAVs). First, we survey a total of 18 PAV systems that were subject to 33 evaluations. We found that half of the systems have only been tested for usability, and those were shallow inspections. The rest were evaluated with respect to their educational effectiveness. Script-based systems seem to be well suited for the viewing, responding, and changing engagement levels, while compiler-based systems do well for the construction and presenting engagement levels. Finally, we analyze additional PAV features of successful evaluations and hypothesize that they are relevant.

The test-first approach has been repeatedly advocated to learn both programming and software engineering. Besides, automatic graders are broadly used, both in programming contests and in everyday teaching. The sort of problems stated in both situations is always placed at the application and higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, and it demands some degree of mastery on students. In this paper we address the combined use of automatic grading and the test-driven approach from a pedagogical view. In particular, we address assessment at the levels of comprehension, application,analysis and synthesis in Bloom’s taxonomy. We makea proposal, based on sorts of exercises and suggested examples. We also gather a set of features that exercises should include as metadata to facilitate its use from pedagogical criteria.

This paper follows a method to effectively provide useful visualizations of learners’ behavior in e-Learning. The results are some interactive visualization that should provide a much more proactive way of analysis, since it requires having to pay more attention for a complete understanding of the data and also, offers more data in the same time frame and space for the user (teacher). We present the analysis we have made to effectively provide the visualization tool that fitted us, the Prefuse Visualization Toolkit to develop within our in-house e-Learning Tracking System called Merlin, which is sharable and fully open source. Finally, interactive visualization has helped us, teachers, to improve assessment of learning, and can probably help you too.

Can e-learning systems effectively provide useful information to help teachers prevent students dropping out and failing as well as other access patterns useful to improve the pace of teaching? We present the data resulting from the analysis of a series of university courses in two different universities, one in Madrid, Spain, and the other one in London, United Kingdom. In order to do so, we have collected data from October 2006 to July 2007 from 400 students from 6 different courses interacting one way or the other with their e-learning platform. Thus, in these two countries a different e-learning tracking system was used to obtain the information about access; in the first one, an Ad-hoc Tracking System called Merlin placed in an in house e-learning system, and in the second one, the standard Blackboard tracking system was used.

In this paper we describe SRec, a system to animate recursion in Java programs. It is intended to assist in algorithm courses to better understand and analyze algorithm behavior. We make several contributions. Firstly, SRec exhibits a comprehensive set of animation and educational features. It provides three complem- entary, coordinated views of recursion: traces, the execution stack and activation trees. SRec allows the user constructing and modifying animations without effort. The animation can be played flexibly, both forward and backwards. It also provides facilities to integrate animations into courses. Secondly, the paper describes the educational features of the system and its use in algorithm courses. Thirdly, the system has been fully evaluated with respect to usability (using formative and summative methods) and has been compared to other systems reported in the literature. The results of both evaluations are highly positive.

We have developed several tools to allow instructors analyze students' interactions in a Course Management System. In this paper we describe a Systematic Usability Evaluation designed to test the usability of one of these tools. The evaluations were based on task analysis and follow-up studies. We have assessed effectiveness, efficiency, usefulness, ease of use, learnability, and user's satisfaction of the tool. In addition to regular observation and questionnaires, 3- scope video recording was used to provide the evaluator with more information about interactions. The use of this technology helped us in identifying functions and features that need improvement. We describe the three-step method that we have developed and the satisfactory results it has provided us.

No abstract available.

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No abstract available.

Programming languages are a part of the core of computer science. Courses on programming languages are typically offered to junior or senior students, and textbooks are based on this assumption. However, our computer science curriculum offers the programming languages course in the first year. This unusual situation led us to design it from an untypical approach. In this paper, we first analyze and classify proposals for the programming languages course into different pure and hybrid approaches. Then, we describe a course for freshmen based on four pure approaches, and justify the main choices made. Finally, we identify the software used for laboratories and outline our experience after teaching it for seven years.

Programming is a suitable field to design electronic books with a laboratory component, where the programming task is exercised in the theoretical context provided by the book. The goal of the paper is to make a review of current electronic books for programming education and identify future lines of research. First, we review a number of software tools and electronic books for programming education in order to give a broad vision of technological opportunities in programming education. Later, a comparative analysis of such electronic books is made. Finally, based on this overview and analysis, we identify aspects that either are currently poorly supported or are a subject of active research, thus constituting potential areas for future improvement.

EXercita is a system designed to archive and publish programming exercises. It consists of a repository of structured documents, each describing an exercise, and several tools to manage it. Documents are marked-up with an extension of LaTeX we have designed, called eXercita, and can be automatically published as PostScript files or Web pages. In addition, exercises can be automatically published as a hierarchical Web site that mirrors the structure of the repository.

I present a problem to be used in the first class of the algorithms course as an introduction to the topic. Two algorithms are given, simple but rich enough to illustrate several issues.

We propose a gradual approach to teach recursion. Our main assumption is that the difficulty in learning recursion does not come from the recursion concept itself, but from its interaction with other mechanisms of imperative programming. We use this basic idea to propose a new pedagogical approach. On the one hand, recursion is introduced in a gradual way by means of three fields (grammars, functional programming and imperative programming). On the other hand, each instance of recursion is explained so that all of its accompanying mechanisms are clearly identified.

No abstract available.

Some students experience difficulties when first introduced to dynamic memory. The goal of this paper is to present an analogy between dynamic memory programming and a real-world example that will help students in understanding the underlying concepts behind dynamic memory: a left-luggage room with lockers.

article Graphical visualization of the evaluation of functional programs Share on Authors: Ricardo Jiménez-Peris Depto. de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos e Ingeniería del Software, Facultad de Informática. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, s/n. 28060-Madrid, Spain Depto. de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos e Ingeniería del Software, Facultad de Informática. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, s/n. 28060-Madrid, SpainView Profile , Cristóbal Pareja-Flores Depto. de Informática y Automática, Escuela Universitaria de Estadística. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avda. Puerta de Hierro, sin. 28040-Madrid. Spain Depto. de Informática y Automática, Escuela Universitaria de Estadística. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avda. Puerta de Hierro, sin. 28040-Madrid. SpainView Profile , Marta Patiño-Martínez Depto. de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos e Ingeniería del Software, Facultad de Informática. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, s/n. 28060-Madrid, Spain Depto. de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos e Ingeniería del Software, Facultad de Informática. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, s/n. 28060-Madrid, SpainView Profile , J. Ángel Velázquez-Iturbide Depto. de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos e Ingeniería del Software, Facultad de Informática. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, s/n. 28060-Madrid, Spain Depto. de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos e Ingeniería del Software, Facultad de Informática. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, s/n. 28060-Madrid, SpainView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM SIGCUE OutlookVolume 24Issue 1-3Jan.-July, 1996 pp 36–38https://doi.org/10.1145/1013718.237520Published:01 January 1996 7citation191DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations7Total Downloads191Last 12 Months4Last 6 weeks2 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

No abstract available.

No abstract available.