TRULY INTERACTIVE TEXTBOOKS FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION

The dream of an electronic textbook has been actively pursued for at least two decades. Goals include (i) improving exposition through a richer collection of technologies than are available through print textbooks, and (ii) increase student engagement with the material, in order to get them to learn at a higher level in Bloom’s taxonomy (Naps et al., 2002). Instead of merely viewing material, we can hope to use frequent assessment (by asking questions) to get them responding, and through interactive activities get them to change and construct virtual artifacts. We will use the term hyper-textbook to refer to an electronic textbook that integrates interactive exercises and assessment.

See (Rossling et al., 2006; Ross and Grinder, 2002) for background on efforts to define and implement the hyper-textbook. In this paper, we discuss our plans to create a hyper-textbook for a complete semester course in Data Structures at the Sophomore level. Data Structures and Algorithms as a topic can particularly benefit from the use of advanced technology to aid explanation of the dynamic processes that make up the essence of an algorithm, and which can be difficult to convey using words and images.

Therefore, our particular focus is on the use of algorithm visualization (Shaffer et al., 2010; Naps et al., 2002) as a means both to deliver the necessary dynamic exposition, and to increase student interaction with the material. We will discuss how research results indicating the value of AVs combined with a lack of progress in uptake of AVs in actual courses leads us to the conclusion that a complete semester-long course package is the right way to go. We describe our plans for implementation, including a discussion of relevant technology for the project.