Codewitz

Tampere University of Technology Institute of Software Systems is participating in international Codewitz project. The goal of the project is to study computer-aided teaching of programming with the aid of illustration, animation and visualization. For more specific information on the project, see the international pages. Some of the funding is provided by EU's Minerva-project and TUT's Virtual University.

Results

So far, three tools have been implemented related to Codewitz:

  • VIP (Visual InterPreter)

    • A visual interpreter tool for learning C++ programming. In VIP users can run examples step-by-step seeing the internal state of the program and statement-evaluation at every step. Examples are guided with introductions and explanations during the run.

    Because VIP is built on interpreter, the examples are easily and simply implemented by teachers to support their own materials. VIP runs as a Java applet and so needs no installation besides the plugin.

    Further development of VIP is ongoing during summer 2006.

    Homepage

  • TiVi (Tiedostojärjestelmän Visualisointi)

    • A tool in finnish for visualizing the difficulties in file systems of operating systems.
    Homepage Only in finnish

  • Convit (CONcurrent programming VIsualisation Tool)

    • A tool for learning concurrent programming done in 2003. It provides a visual presentation of concurrent programs to user.
    Homepage

    Team

    Hannu-Matti Järvinen, Dr.Tech, Professor - Head of Project
    Essi Lahtinen, M.Sc, Researcher - Local Coordinator
    Kirsti Ala-Mutka, M.Sc, Teaching Research Scientist - Local Coordinator
    Antti Virtanen, M.Sc, Researcher
    Mika Jokinen, Research Assistant
    Tuomas Turto, Research Assistant
    Tuukka Ahoniemi, Research Assistant
    Markus Heikkilä, ex-member (TiVi)

    Publications

    VIP, a Visual Interpreter for Learning Introductory Programming with C++
    Virtanen, A., Lahtinen, E., Järvinen, H.-M.
    Proceedings of The Fifth Koli Calling Conference on Computer Science Education, November 17-20 2005, Koli, Finland.
    A publication written about the visualization tool developed in this project.
    Available here.

    Visualizations to Support Programming on Different Levels of Cognitive Development
    Lahtinen, E., Ahoniemi, T.
    Proceedings of The Fifth Koli Calling Conference on Computer Science Education, November 17-20 2005, Koli, Finland.
    A publication introducing a categorization of visualizations according to Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive development.
    Available here.

    A Study of the Difficulties of Novice Programmers
    Lahtinen, E., Ala-Mutka, K., Järvinen, H.-M. 2005
    ITiCSE'05, June 27-29, Monte de Caparica, Portugal.
    A publication written about a survey done in the Codewitz-project.
    Available here.

    Problems in Learning and Teaching Programming
    Ala-Mutka, K.
    A literature study for developing visualizations in the Codewitz-Minerva project.
    Available here.

    Convit, a Tool for Learning Concurrent Programming
    Järvinen, H.-M., Tiusanen, M., Virtanen A.T.
    World Conference on E-Learning in Corp., Govt., Health., & Higher Ed., Vol. 2003, Issue. 1, 2003, pp. 2220-2223
    Available here.