article

Visualizing roles of variables in program animation

Authors:

Jorma Sajaniemi,

Marja KuittinenAuthors Info & Claims

Information Visualization, Volume 3, Issue 3

Pages 137 - 153

https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ivs.9500075

Published: 01 September 2004 Publication History

Abstract

Visualizations may be used to assist in learning elementary computer programming - a skill that is hard to acquire by many students. This article presents a program animation system, PlanAni, that is based on the concept of the roles of variables. Roles represent schematic uses of variables that occur in programs over and over again, and a set of nine roles covers practically all variables in novice-level programs. PlanAni has been evaluated in a classroom experiment comparing traditional teaching with role-based teaching and animation. The results suggest that the introduction of roles provides students with a new conceptual framework that enables them to mentally process program information in a way similar to that of good code comprehenders. The use of role-based animation seems to assist in the adoption of role knowledge and expert-like programming strategies. A semi-structured interview with the teacher indicates that students like to work with the animator and that the system clarifies many concepts in programming.

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Cited By

Shi NMin ZZhang P(2017)Effects of visualizing roles of variables with animation and IDE in novice program constructionTelematics and Informatics10.1016/j.tele.2017.02.00534:5(743-754)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.tele.2017.02.005
Bennedsen JSchulte C(2010)BlueJ Visual Debugger for Learning the Execution of Object-Oriented Programs?ACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/1789934.178993810:2(1-22)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1789934.1789938
Lahtinen EMalmi LPears A(2008)Students' individual differences in using visualizationsProceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/1595356.1595373(92-95)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1595356.1595373
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Visualizing roles of variables in program animation

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cover image Information Visualization

Information Visualization Volume 3, Issue 3

Special issue: Software visualization

September 2004

91 pages

ISSN:1473-8716

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Palgrave Macmillan

Publication History

Published: 01 September 2004

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Cited By

Shi NMin ZZhang P(2017)Effects of visualizing roles of variables with animation and IDE in novice program constructionTelematics and Informatics10.1016/j.tele.2017.02.00534:5(743-754)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.tele.2017.02.005
Bennedsen JSchulte C(2010)BlueJ Visual Debugger for Learning the Execution of Object-Oriented Programs?ACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/1789934.178993810:2(1-22)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1789934.1789938
Lahtinen EMalmi LPears A(2008)Students' individual differences in using visualizationsProceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/1595356.1595373(92-95)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1595356.1595373
Sajaniemi JKuittinen MTikansalo T(2008)A study of the development of students' visualizations of program state during an elementary object-oriented programming courseJournal on Educational Resources in Computing (JERIC)10.1145/1316450.13164537:4(1-31)Online publication date: 9-Jan-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1316450.1316453
Sajaniemi JKuittinen MTikansalo TAnderson RFincher SGuzdial M(2007)A study of the development of students' visualizations of program state during an elementary object-oriented programming courseProceedings of the third international workshop on Computing education research10.1145/1288580.1288582(1-16)Online publication date: 15-Sep-2007
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Nevalainen SSajaniemi JAnderson RFincher SGuzdial M(2006)An experiment on short-term effects of animated versus static visualization of operations on program perceptionProceedings of the second international workshop on Computing education research10.1145/1151588.1151591(7-16)Online publication date: 9-Sep-2006
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Sajaniemi JByckling PGerdt PKraemer EBurnett MDiehl S(2006)Metaphor-based animation of OO programsProceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on Software visualization10.1145/1148493.1148530(173-174)Online publication date: 4-Sep-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1148493.1148530

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