A Framework Developing Cross-platform Pen-based Classroom Applications with an Automated Measure of Vocal Participation by Wade

This thesis presents the development and deployment of educational software applications on a heterogeneous set of consumer-level devices. To do this, the SLICE framework was created to allow for application developers to quickly build software to target pen-and touch-based devices. This thesis discusses both the internals of the framework as well as how a developer may develop an application on the framework. Additionally, two flagship applications were built using the SLICE framework: an application to facilitate code review and an application to replace PowerPoint in large lectures. As part of the deployment of both applications, semester-long experiments were done to measure the impact of the deployment. In one, student audio was used as a metric to measure " vocal participation " – a metric defined in this thesis. In the other, students motivated the use of the technology in lecture through surveys givens throughout the semester. One key result presented in this thesis is student vocal participation increased by nearly 20% when Tablet PCs were introduced (p < 0.001). iii Acknowledgments