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GVU Technical Report Series

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Author: Stasko, John T. × Author: Badre, Albert N. × Start date: 1991 × End date: 1999 ×

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    Empirically Evaluating the Use of Animations to Teach Algorithms
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1994) Lawrence, Andrea Williams ; Badre, Albert N. ; Stasko, John T.
    As algorithm animation systems become more widely available and easy to use, instructors must decide whether to utilize these systems to assist their teaching. Although these systems have generated excitement and interest in both teachers and students, little empirical evidence exists to promote their use. This article describes a study involving the use of algorithm animations in classroom and laboratory settings. Results indicated that allowing students to create their own examples in a laboratory session led to higher accuracy on the post-test examination of understanding of the algorithm as compared to students who viewed prepared examples or no laboratory examples.
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    Assessing Program Visualization Systems as Instructional Aids
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1991) Badre, Albert N. ; Beranek, Margaret ; Morris, John Morgan ; Stasko, John T.
    Recently, program visualization systems have received much attention as learning tools and as software understanding aids. How to evaluate these systems, however, is an open and unexplored area. In order to determine what factors may be important, we conducted an exploratory study using XTango, an algorithm animation system. First, we asked professors to complete surveys intended to solicit information regarding current practices in the teaching of algorithms. Next, we observed two groups of students: one group received a handout and viewed an animation of the Shellsort algorithm, the other received the same handout and listened to a lecture featuring drawings on the blackboard. The students were queried on their understanding of the sort and their impressions of the animation system. Comments indicated a high perceived value for the system, with most students favoring its use as a teaching tool. It was clear from students' responses that an algorithm animation system can be used more effectively as a supplement in the classroom environment than as a substitute for the teacher. The results of this study identified changes to the animation system that will help integrate it into the classroom environment, and provided several important factors to consider in future empirical studies.
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    The Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center Brochure
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1991) Badre, Albert N. ; Berger, Marc ; Corso, Gregory M. ; Davis, Elizabeth T. ; Ezquerra, Norberto F. ; Foley, James D. ; Govindaraj, T. ; Guenter, Brian K. ; Hodges, Larry F. ; Hodges, Laurie Beth ; Hudson, Scott E. ; Lawton, Daryl T. ; Mitchell, C. M. (Christine M.) ; Morton, Joan C. ; Mynatt, Elizabeth D. ; Putnam, Bill ; Ribarsky, William ; Rodriguez, Walter ; Shonkwiler, Ronald W. ; Sinclair, Michael J. ; Stasko, John T. ; Sukaviriya, Piyawadee (Noi) ; Trauner, Mary ; Walker, Neff
    Graphics, Visualization, and Usability (GVU) is an interdisciplinary area which draws its intellectual foundations from Computer Science, Psychology, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Computer Engineering, and which has application to any use of computers to graphically convey information to users. Typical applications are computer aided design, scientific and business data visualization, multimedia, computer-supported cooperative work, computer-based teaching, image understanding, medical imaging, and user interface design. The GVU Center has three missions: education, service, and research. In our educational role, we teach the principles and methods of computer graphics, visualization, and usability to members of the academic community ranging from undergraduate students to graduate students and faculty. Center members teach dozens of courses and seminars among the wide offering of relevant courses listed in Section F. A set of continuing education short courses (Section G) are provided to assist practitioners to stay abreast of current developments. Our service mission is carried out through the Scientific Visualization Lab, a joint undertaking with Information Technology (the campus-wide computer service), to provide state of the art computer graphics hardware and software capabilities to the entire Georgia Tech Community. Over 150 faculty, graduate students and staff use the visualization lab's facilities. Our research, described in Section B, spans the areas of realistic imagery, computer-supported collaborative work, algorithm animation, medical imaging, image understanding, scientific data visualization, animation, user interface software, usability, adaptive user interfaces, multimedia, stereo graphics, virtual environments, image quality, and expert systems in graphics and user interfaces. The twenty faculty and staff who are actively developing the lab's programs are drawn from Psychology, Mechanical Engineering, Office of Interdisciplinary Programs, Physics, Mathematics, Information Technology, and the College of Computing. An active seminar series and brown-bag lunches brings us together every week to discuss current research topics. By integrating these three missions together in a single unit, the Center is developing a highly interactive and collaborative environment where researchers unfamiliar with computer graphics can come for help in integrating scientific visualization into their research work, graphics experts and graduate students can share thier knowledge with one another and find new and interesting problems on which to work, and students can learn in a melting pot of closely-related ideas and collaborations between researchers from multiple disciplines. This intellectually-stimulating environment, complemented by over 40 workstations and other pieces of equipment and over 3000 square feet of newly-renovated lab space, provides a paradigm for the use of interactive computer graphics systems which will be necessary for engineering and scientific research in the 21st century.