In this paper, we describe a pedagogical tool for providing rich content in early programming courses.

We propose an extension of the Teaching Machine project, called Quiz Generator, that allows instructors to produce assessment quizzes in the field of algorithm and data structures quite easily. This extension makes use of visualization techniques and is based on new features of the Teaching Machine that allow third-party visualizers to be added as plugins and on new scripting capabilities. Using these new capabilities, five quiz types have already been produced, which can be applied to any algorithm and/or data structure for which the necessary visualizer plugins exist.

A demonstration of the integration of a program animation tool into a set of web based notes used by instructors for lecturing and students for studying. Standard, conventionally prepared C++ and Java examples are dynamically incorporated into the class notes and can be interactively run in the animation tool directly from within the notes.

The aggregative closure operator is defined and its usefulness is demonstrated in a wide variety of applications. The concepts and definitions of closed semirings and the aggregating relational operators provide a mathematical framework for the presentation of algorithms for these applications. A novel algorithm is also presented which is intended for the computation of the aggregate closure. All of these algorithms but the last are generalizations of existing algorithms intended for transitive closure.>