Treffer: WAAL : A Web-based Algorithm Animation And Learning System

A graphics is worth several pages of text for conveying an idea, a concept or a piece of theory. With progress in technology for mass communication medium, hypermedia systems and world wide web, visualization has become a key theme in learning and knowledge acquisition. Remote learning and education system have acquired a new dimension with expressive power of world wide web and platform independent client programming. Students are now accustomed to receive much information through visual channel. Typically a Computer science major requires learning of a large no of algorithms most of them being quite complicated. The algorithm animation could provide to be a great learning aid to the students in following ways. Motivation Enhancement : Through appealing presentation of complex material, the students are better motivated to study complicated subjects. Skill Mastery Through Additional Practice Opportunities : Students get new way to experience algorithms. In addition to doing paper exercises and writing programs, they can perceive algorithms visually and study their features by watching and interacting with animations. Development Of Analytic Skills : As students are asked to collect their own data for algorithm analysis and subsequent design of improved algorithms, algorithm animation also assists in the development of analytic skills. Motivated by the above advantages of animated algorithms, in this thesis, we have animated all well known algorithms belonging to each of these following classes Sorting, Trees, Graph, String Matching, Stack And Queue, Hashing, Sorting Network, Dynamic Programming, and Traveling Sales Person Problem.