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...visualization technology positively impacts learning. However, experimental studies designed to substantiate the educational effectiveness of such visualization technology simply do not bear this out =-=[28]-=-. On top of this, a major deterrent to adopting visualization that emerged from our pre-conference survey is the time and effort required for instructors to integrate the technology into their curricu...

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...72-8-934 2940 moti.ben-ari@weizmann.ac.il algorithm only helps students to learn if it somehow cognitively engages them and is specially targeted for the particular user population (e.g. for novices) =-=[4, 11]-=-. The results achieved have driven researchers to reformulate their research questions. It has become clear that the media itself does not have a strong effect on the learning outcomes. The effect of ...

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...actors, Languages Keywords JAWAA, Animation 1 Introduction Animations of concepts are fun to watch, but how helpful are they in learning? A recent survey [3] and an analysis of twenty-one experiments =-=[1]-=- suggest that learner involvement such as student-built animations improves learning. However, building animations from scratch can be time consuming We have developed the tool JAWAA [4] (Java And Web...

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.... While the techniques used to build these systems may not be generally applicable, a number of studies have been done to gauge the effectiveness of algorithm animation in teaching. Hundhausen et al. =-=[31]-=- surveys 24 such studies, finding that about half of them find that algorithm visualization significantly improves learning. (Of the rest, most find the difference to be statistically insignificant. O...

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...s might give students the impression that all these values are available and could be accessed using some special syntax. Therefore, the teacher should stress constantly during animation sessions that only one of the values does exist in reality and that the others are shown for visualization purposes only. In our experience, this is sufficient for preventing misunderstandings. PlanAni provides possibilities not only for mere passive viewing of ready-made animations but to engage students actively in running the animated program and in entering their own inputs. According to Hundhausen et al. [10], animation is more effective when students have an active role in using the animator. 3.3 Programming Strategies Development Programming is a problem-solving activity requiring problemsolving operators that can be taught—preferably by giving abstract instruction and concrete examples ([1], p. 247). In our experience, novices have severe conceptual problems when they start to design a program—they may not know whether to start with a variable or a loop—indicating the lack of programming strategies, i.e., problemsolving operators. To overcome such problems, students can be taught to use roles a...

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...oduction Despite a research history spanning more than a decade, attempts to demonstrate the power of algorithm animations as learning tools for students have generally produced disappointing results =-=[9]-=-. In many cases interesting algorithm animations were designed and deployed [e.g., 12], but the literature lacks formal and systematic evaluations that provide compelling evidence for the instructiona...

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...creating and deploying effective algorithm visualizations is difficult. There is a small body of literature that investigates how to create pedagogically useful algorithm visualizations (for example, =-=[10, 15]-=-). Yet, there is still much to be done before we are at the point where good quality visualizations on most topics of interest are widely available. The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary o...