ANT: A Coherent Framework for Computer Science Education

这个完整的EMD项目正在增强ANT，这是一个虚拟机框架。ANT以前用于教授CS学生关于机器体系结构、汇编语言编程和数据表示的入门概念，现在正在扩展为在CS核心课程中适用和有用，例如在体系结构和逻辑课程、VLSI设计课程、编译器课程和操作系统课程中。蚂蚁旨在为学生提供可用于解决实际问题的背景、工具、技术和直觉。ANT框架提供了课程之间的连续性，演示了代码重用的真实示例，并让学生彻底理解了贯穿多个抽象层的计算框架。ANT的实施正在进行修订，以使其适用于不同的人群，包括其他大学、社区学院、成人教育项目和高中计算机课程。这是通过开发多平台支持和强大的图形用户界面来实现的。一项形成性评估正在几个不同的计算机科学教育环境中进行。已经制定了一项评估方案，将其分发给所有考点。正在收集治疗前和治疗后的数据，以提供使用ANT的结果比较。此外，正在实施一种研究学生工作习惯的方法，以便能够在具体课程范围内分析ANT的有用性。正在使用ANT网站进行传播，其中包括文件、教程、评价结果和实际ANT平台。这是在哈佛大学的服务器上建立和维护的，并承诺只要ANT被认为对教授计算机科学有用，就会维持该网站。与一家计算机科学教科书出版商正在进行谈判，以出版完整的ANT文档以及包含产品和样本问题的CD-ROM。

This full EMD project is enhancing ANT, a virtual machine framework. Previously used to teach CS students introductory concepts about machine architecture, assembly language programming and data representation, ANT is being expanded to be applicable and useful across the CS core curriculum, such as in architecture and logic courses, VLSI design courses, compiler courses, and operating systems courses. ANT is designed to provide students with the background, tools, techniques and intuitions that can be applied to solving real problems. The ANT framework provides continuity between courses, demonstrates real-world examples of code reuse, and gives students a thorough understanding of a computational framework that cuts through many layers of abstraction. The ANT implementation is being revised to make it suitable for diverse populations, including other universities, community colleges, adult education programs, and high school computing courses. This is being accomplished by developing multi-platform support and a robust graphical user interface. A formative evaluation is being conducted at several different computer science education settings. An evaluation protocol has been developed to be distributed to all test sites. Both pre and post treatment data is being collected to provide a comparison of results using ANT. In addition a methodology for studying student work habits is being implemented to allow analysis of usefulness of ANT in the context of specific courses. Dissemination is being accomplished using an ANT web site containing documentation, tutorials, the evaluation results and the actual ANT platform. This is being established and maintained on the Harvard University server with the commitment to sustain the site as long as ANT is considered to be useful to teach computer science. Negotiations are taking place with a publisher of computer science texts books to publish the complete ANT documentation along with a CD-ROM containing the product and sample problems.