Treffer: How Algorithm Animations Aid Learning in Computer Algorithm Education --- A Literature Review of Algorithm Animations in Computer Science Education

It has been widely accepted in computer science education (CSE) community that algorithm animations (AA) can help students enhance their understanding to computer algorithms. And since the early eighties there have been lots of efforts being made to develop AA systems. However, the later accumulated empirical studies on the effectiveness of AA have shown that the results are mixed at best. The seemingly disappointing outcome urged people to ask: “Do algorithm animations really help? “, and “How it helps in learning?” With these questions, from the early nineties, researchers started conducting the studies to gain some insights into how AA can fit into successful learning strategies, say active learning strategies and how it can work better when integrated into a richer context, say a hypermedia system. This paper presents a review of the research work in this area. The primary goal is trying to provide us a comprehensive understanding of how AA can assist in learning within the challenging discipline of computer algorithm, and help to inform the AA designers, the CS educators and the CS students in their own work respectively. In particular, we hope readers can get a basic clue about how to objectively evaluate an algorithm animation system and furthermore harness its power to its maximum effectiveness.