GVU Technical Report Number:
GIT-GVU-96-18
Title:
Do Algorithm Animations Aid Learning?
Authors:
Michael D. Byrne
Richard Catrambone
John T. Stasko
Abstract:
Two experiments examined the general claim that animations can help
students learn algorithms more effectively. Animations and instructions
that explicitly required learners to predict the behavior of an algorithm
were used during training. Post-test problems were designed to measure
how well learners could predict algorithm behavior in new situations as
well as measure learners' conceptual understanding of the algorithms. In
Experiment 1, we found that when learners both viewed an animation and made
predictions, their performance on novel problems improved comapred to a
control group's, but the effects of the two manipulations were not
distinguishable. In Experiment 2, no effect was found for conceptual
measures of learning, but a marginally reliable effect similar to the one
seen in Experiment 1 was found for procedural problems. The results from
the two experiments suggest that the benefits of animations are not
obvious and that in order to determine whether animations can truly aid
understanding, teachers and researchers should consider a careful task
analysis ahead of time to determine the specific pieces of knowledge
that an animation can help a learner acquire and/or practice.
Keywords:
Algorithm animation, prediction, empirical study, software visualization,
evaluation
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