Taxonomy of effortless creation of algorithm visualizations

Abstract

The idea of using visualization technology to enhance the understanding of abstract concepts, like data structures and algorithms, has become widely accepted. Several attempts have been made to introduce a system that levels out the burden of creating new visualizations. However, one of the main obstacles to fully taking advantage of algorithm visualization seems to be the time and effort required to design, integrate and maintain the visualizations.Effortlessness in the context of algorithm visualization is a highly subjective matter including many factors. Thus, we first introduce a taxonomy to characterize effortlessness in algorithm visualization systems. We have identified three main categories based on a survey conducted among CS educators: i) scope, i.e. how wide is the context one can apply the system to ii) integrability, i.e., how easy it is to take in use by a third party, and iii) interaction techniques, i.e., how well does the system support different use cases regularly applied by educators. We will conclude that generic and effortless visualization systems are needed. Such a system, however, needs to combine a range of characteristics implemented in many current AV systems.

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“…Previously, some taxonomies and categorization schemes have been presented in SLC subareas, such as [50,68], but prior approaches focus on specific issues in the subarea each addresses, whereas we take a more general view. On the other hand, Ihantola et al [41], while discussing algorithm visualization, do take a more general view. They identify several dimensions in their taxonomy of effortlessness, including scope (a tool can be lessonspecific, course-specific, domain-specific and no-specific) and integrability (e.g., installation, customization, platform independence, internationalization, course management support and integration to hypertext).…”

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“…For over a decade, algorithm/data-structure visualization has been an active research area in computer science education; for a partial list of representative projects, please refer to [12,6,10,9,2,1,5,7] and check the "SIGCSE: Education Links" page 3 . In his Ph.D. dissertation, Roessling cites several of the methods that have been tried in the past [8].…”