Educational Fusion : A Distributed Visual Environment for Teaching Algorithms by Aaron T . T .

Educational Fusion is a Web based learning environment for teaching algorithmic concepts. Teachers and Students access Fusion from any computer with a JavaTM enable browser. Once logged in to the system, teachers and students alike are presented with a Concept Graph: a collection of modules, each representing an algorithm, that are interconnected to express a collective algorithmic concept. Students are challenged to complete the Concept Graph by implementing a chosen set of the modules. Each module provides a simulation environment that depicts the given algorithm, allowing students to visually test their implementations. Teachers use the same tools to monitor and evaluate the student's efforts. An extensive collaboration system allows for continuous communication between the educators and pupils, sharing of results, and automation of teacher feedback. The goal of Educational Fusion is to aid teachers, students, and lesson developers in the educational process of teaching algorithms. Through Fusion's online collaborative environment, teachers and students become more accessible to each other. A server side repository frees both teacher and student from the tedious responsibility of cataloguing assignments. This accessibility and organization, combined with automated feedback tools, allows for a seamless interaction between students and teachers that helps overcome the obstacles of physical location and agenda coordination. The student's learning process is also enhanced through visualizations and automations that replace programming grunge work common to more traditional methods of teaching algorithmic concepts. Lesson developers benefit from modular lessons that lend themselves to selective reuse. Furthermore, toolkits for producing these modules expedites initial development efforts.