We present a program visualization tool called Jeliot 3 that is designed to aid novice students to learn procedural and object oriented programming. The key feature of Jeliot is the fully or semi-automatic visualization of the data and control flows. The development process of Jeliot has been research-oriented, meaning that all the different versions have had their own research agenda rising from the design of the previous version and their empirical evaluations. In this process, the user interface and visualization has evolved to better suit the targeted audience, which in the case of Jeliot 3, is novice programmers. In this paper we explain the model for the system and introduce the features of the user interface and visualization engine. Moreover, we have developed an intermediate language that is used to decouple the interpretation of the program from its visualization. This has led to a modular design that permits both internal and external extensibility.

Many individual instructors -- and, in some cases, entire universities -- are gravitating towards the use of comprehensive learning management systems (LMSs), such as Blackboard and Moodle, for managing courses and enhancing student learning. As useful as LMSs are, they are short on features that meet certain needs specific to computer science education. On the other hand, computer science educators have developed--and continue to develop-computer-based software tools that aid in management, teaching, and/or learning in computer science courses. In this report we provide an overview of current CS specific on-line learning resources and guidance on how one might best go about extending an LMS to include such tools and resources. We refer to an LMS that is extended specifically for computer science education as a Computing Augmented Learning Management System, or CALMS. We also discuss sound pedagogical practices and some practical and technical principles for building a CALMS. However, we do not go into details of creating a plug-in for some specific LMS. Further, the report does not favor one LMS over another as the foundation for a CALMS.

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As a report of a working group at ITiCSE 2006, this paper provides a vision of how visualizations and the software that generates them may be integrated into hypertextbooks and course management systems. This integration generates a unique synergy that we call a Visualization-based Computer Science Hypertextbook (VizCoSH). By borrowing features of both traditional hypertextbooks and course management systems, VizCoSHs become delivery platforms that address some of the reasons why visualizations have failed to find widespread use in education.The heart of the paper describes these features and explains, from both a student and teacher perspective, how each feature adds educational value to a visualization. In some cases, this value focuses on pedagogical issues, taking advantage of known strategies for making visualizations more engaging and effective. In other cases, the emphasis is on making it easier for teachers to use visualizations. A set of possible use scenarios and approaches for increasing interest in adopting a VizCoSH are also presented.

International audienceWe detail the solution of team uniandes1 to the ESWC 2014 Linked Open Data-enabled Recommender Systems Challenge Task 1 (rating prediction on a cold start situation). In these situations, there are few ratings per item and user and thus collaborative filtering techniques may not be suitable. In order to be able to use a content-based solution, linked-open data from DBPedia was used to obtain a set of descriptive features for each item. We compare the performance (measured as RMSE) of three models on this cold-start situation: content-based (using min-count sketches), collaborative filtering (SVD++) and rule-based switched hybrid models. Experimental results show that the hybrid system outperforms each of the models that compose it. Since features taken from DBPedia were sparse, we clustered items in order to reduce the dimensionality of the item and user profiles

As a report of a working group at ITiCSE 2005, this paper represents a vision of the use of XML specifications and tools in algorithm visualization, particularly with regard to supporting user interaction. A detailed description is given of how an interesting event to be visualized is decomposed, combined with interactive questions, narratives, control flow code and metadata, and finally rendered into graphical primitive and transformation specifications. The heart of the paper is our discussion of XML specifications for content generation (the object being visualized), interactive questions, and graphical primitives and transformations, with briefer discussions of narratives and metadata. Examples are provided for each in an appendix, with fuller details to be published on an associated website that we hope will become a source of future standards in this area.In conclusion, the approach of the working group is discussed, and important remaining challenges are identified.

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