CRCD/EI: Adaptive Explanatory Visualization for Learning Programming Concepts

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0426021 Peter Brusilovsky University of Pittsburgh $220,000'CRCD/EI: Adaptive Explanatory Visualization for Learning Programming Concepts' This project, involving a partnership between the University of Pittsburgh and Ramapo College, engages in an exploration of adaptive explanatory visualization as a technology to teach programming concepts. Interactive visualization provides a visual metaphor for understanding complicated concepts and uncovering the dynamics of processes that are hidden. An emerging and active application area for visualization research is visualization of program execution in Computer and Information Science (CIS) education, particularly in the context of machine level languages, high-level languages, and algorithms and data structures. This project focuses on promising approaches to useful visualization called engaging visualization, explanatory visualization, and adaptive visualization and attempts to answer the following research questions pertaining to visualization: What is the value of adaptation and explanation in the context of program visualization? Will visualization enhancement technologies produce better understanding of programming concepts? Can recent advancements in model-based generation and centralized student modeling produce efficient and scaleable adaptive explanatory visualization? Can adaptive explanatory visualization help teach the most challenging parts of programming-oriented courses? Starting with a proof-of-concept system the research team develops a set of practical tools based on adaptive explanatory visualization and examines their effectiveness in classroom studies at both partner institutions.