From WebEx to NavEx: Interactive Access to Annotated Program Examples

Author

Brusilovsky, Peter ; Yudelson, Michael V.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Inf. Sci., Pittsburgh Univ., Pittsburgh, PA

Volume

96

Issue

6

fYear

2008

fDate

6/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

990

Lastpage

999

Abstract

This paper reviews our work on providing students interactive access to annotated program examples. We review our experience with WebEx, the system that allows students to explore examples line by line. After that we present NavEx, an adaptive environment for accessing interactive programming examples. NavEx enhances WebEx with a specific kind of adaptive navigation support known as adaptive annotation. The classroom study of NavEx discovered that adaptive navigation support can visibly increase student motivation to work with nonmandatory educational content. NavEx boosted the overall amount of work done and the average length of a session. In addition, various features of NavEx were highly regarded by the students.

Keywords

human computer interaction; NavEx; WebEx; adaptive annotation; interactive access; interactive programming; nonmandatory education; student motivation; Adaptive systems; Computer languages; Computer science education; Educational technology; Feedback; Hypertext systems; Navigation; Problem-solving; Programming profession; Technological innovation; Adaptive systems; computer science education; educational technology; hypertext systems; programming; user modeling;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Proceedings of the IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9219

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPROC.2008.921611

Filename

4527077