jGRASP has three integrated approaches for interacting with its dynamic viewers for data structures: debugger, workbench, and text-based interactions that allow individual Java statements and expressions to be executed/evaluated. These approaches can be used together to provide a complementary set of interactions with the dynamic viewers. Data…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the use of solid modeling software increases participants' success in solving a specified technical problem and how visualization affects their ability to solve a technical problem. Specifically, the study sought to determine if (a) students' visualization skills affect their problem…

Advances in anatomical informatics, three-dimensional (3D) modeling, and virtual reality (VR) methods have made computer-based structural visualization a practical tool for education. In this article, the authors describe streamlined methods for producing VR "learning objects," standardized interactive software modules for anatomical sciences…

Thirty years of work as a graphic facilitator listening visually to people in every kind of organization has convinced the author that visual intelligence is a key to navigating an information economy rich with multimedia. He also believes that theory and disciplines developed by practitioners in this new field hold special promise for educators…

When the author started his visualization session at Brampton by showing a still from Kate Mackrell's "Kaleidoscope," he was immediately struck by one student's description of a symmetry and reflection line that was quite at odds with what he was holding. Since he had seen the whole thing moving on a number of occasions, the author was hanging on…

This article describes expertise development in a player group in the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft using visualization of chat log data. Charts were created to get a general sense of chat trends in a specific player group engaged in "high-end raiding", a 40-person collaborative activity. These charts helped identify patterns…

This paper presents the results of a study that was conducted to identify and document student perceptions of the effectiveness of computer modeling software introduced in a design foundations course that had previously utilized only conventional manually-produced representation techniques. Rather than attempt to utilize a production-oriented CAD…

As collaborative learning in general, and pair programming in particular, has become widely adopted in computer science education, so has the use of pedagogical visualization tools for facilitating collaboration. However, there is little theory on collaborative learning with visualization, and few studies on their effect on each other. We build on…

This article reviews successful educational experiences in using program and algorithm visualizations (PAVs). First, we survey a total of 18 PAV systems that were subject to 33 evaluations. We found that half of the systems have only been tested for usability, and those were shallow inspections. The rest were evaluated with respect to their…

Many epistemic activities, such as spatial reasoning, sense-making, problem solving, and learning, are information-based. In the context of epistemic activities involving mathematical information, learners often use interactive 3D mathematical visualizations (MVs). However, performing such activities is not always easy. Although it is generally…

Geometry is the study of shape and space. Without spatial ability, students cannot fully appreciate the natural world. Spatial ability is also very important for work in various fields such as computer graphics, engineering, architecture, and cartography. A number of studies have demonstrated that technology has an important potential to develop…

In this study, the popular Purdue Spatial Visualization Test-Visualization by Rotations (PSVT-R) in isometric drawings was recreated with CAD software that allows 3D solid modeling and rendering to provide more realistic pictorial views. Both the original and the modified PSVT-R tests were given to students and their scores on the two tests were…

This article reports on an experiment undertaken in order to evaluate the effect of a program visualization tool for helping students to better understand the dynamics of object-oriented programs. The concrete tool used was BlueJ's debugger and object inspector. The study was done as a control-group experiment in an introductory programming…

Online learning material that students use by themselves is one of the typical usages of algorithm animation (AA). Thus, the integration of algorithm animations into hypertext is seen as an important topic today to promote the usage of algorithm animation in teaching. This article presents an algorithm animation viewer implemented purely using…

Hypertextbooks for Computer Science contents present an interesting approach to better support learners and integrate algorithm animations into the learning materials. We have developed a prototype for integrating a selection of the functionality of such a hypertextbook into the established Moodle LCMS. This article describes the goals and…