Producing graphical views from software and system models is often desirable for communication and comprehension purposes, even when graphical model editing capabilities are not required ś because the preferred editable concrete syntax of the models is text-based, or for models extracted via reverse engineering. To support such scenarios, we present a novel approach for efficient rule-based generation of transient graphical views from models using lazy model-to-text transformation, and an implementation of the proposed approach in the form of an open-source Eclipse plugin named Picto. Picto builds on top of mature visualisation software such as Graphviz and PlantUML and supports, among others, composite views, layers, and multi-model visualisation. We illustrate how Picto can be used to produce various forms of graphical views such as node-edge diagrams, tables and sequence-like diagrams, and we demonstrate the efficiency benefits of lazy view generation approach against batch model-to-text transformation for generating views from large models.
CCS CONCEPTS• Software and its engineering → Domain specific languages;• Information systems → Process control systems.
The application of game principles to nongame contexts has proven to be a powerful pedagogical strategy in the educational area to motivate, engage, and improve learners' performance. In this study, gamification is applied to increase the time and the effort that learners spend in carrying out outside‐class activities, as well as to modify a quite common study pattern of working at the last minute, that is, near exams or deadlines. Our aim was to motivate students to work weekly on the contents of the subject by carrying out practical exercises that led to a deeper knowledge acquisition, development of skills, and the achievement of the learning outcomes gathered in the subject teaching guide. We describe here the gamification strategies applied to two tertiary database courses in two consecutive academic years, following, in one case, a ranking‐based strategy, that is, achieving points by performing different activities; and, in the other one, a strategy based on earning badges and experience points. Next, we analyze the student log activity data along with deadlines and exam information, to assess at what extent gamification helped fulfill our goal. Likewise, we discuss the results of an anonymous survey carried out at the end of the semester to gather the students' opinion. We can conclude that the gamification activities are well appreciated by the learners, especially those that take little time to complete and can be repeated many times to prepare their final exams.
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