A Visualization Tool for Tutoring the Interactive Learning of Data Structures and Algorithmic Schemes

We present a visualization tool for the interactive learning of data structures and algorithmic schemes which can be used as a useful educational environment in Computer Science. The different parts of this tool intend to transmit to the students the importance of separating the specification and the implementation of data structures, facilitating the intuitive comprehension of the most typical implementations by using algorithmic schemes, and providing examples where such structures are used. The tool has been designed to allow teachers to monitor the whole educational process of the students, providing a personal training assistant and a range of tutoring techniques according to the student's response. Along the academic course 2008/09 we have evaluated the part of the tool concerning data structures. The tool evaluation is carried by means of tests, some of them managed from a Virtual Campus, with open access to all the students, and another one managed in a computer laboratory with a controlled group. In this paper, we show the results of this educational experience about the benefits that the students get from the tool in the current teaching of Computer Science.