Experiments With Algorithm Visualization Tool Development

This paper presents the initial stages of a teaching tool named iSketchmate, intended for instructor use during lecture. iSketchmate allows users to create and manipulate splay trees through an animated GUI. It improves upon existing tools by providing (1) the ability to begin with any user-defined tree, (2) a history mechanism so tree operations can be repeated or changed, and (3) finer-grained animation within each operation so instructors may give further descriptions at intermediate steps within any given operation. Experiments showed iSketchmate users could produce significantly more diagrams and these diagrams were significantly more accurate than those made with pencil and paper.