A modern approach to supporting program visualization: from a 2D notation to 3D representations using augmented reality

• Published in: Multimedia tools and applications Vol. 80; no. 1; pp. 543 - 574
• Main Authors: Schez-Sobrino, Santiago, García, María Á., Lacave, Carmen, Molina, Ana I., Glez-Morcillo, Carlos, Vallejo, David, Redondo, Miguel Á.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Algorithms; Augmented reality; Collaboration; Collaborative programming; Computer Communication Networks; Computer Science; Data Structures and Information Theory; Graphical representations; Machine learning; Multimedia Information Systems; Source code; Special Purpose and Application-Based Systems; Subsystems; Traffic signs; Visualization; Programming learning; Three-dimensional displays; Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL); Eclipse; Program visualization; Augmented reality
• ISSN: 1380-7501; 1573-7721
• DOI: 10.1007/s11042-020-09611-0

The visualization of programs and algorithms has been demonstrated to be essential when learning to program. Nevertheless, existing graphic representations require a high level of abstraction that most beginner programmers cannot understand. Current state-of-the-art approaches provide promising alternatives, but a significant part leaves the advantages of graphic representation in the background. These advantages include abstracting the source code by means of symbols that make them easier to understand without previous training. This work introduces the evolution of a 2-D graphic notation to a 3-D environment, which represents an improvement to a complete platform for collaborative programming learning through problem solving, named COLLECE-2.0. This improvement provides the platform with capabilities to visualize programs through augmented reality by using a new set of graphic representations, which are based on roads and traffic signs in the context of programming learning. These visual models have been evaluated by Computer Science students to know whether the proposed notation is intuitive and useful. The obtained results show that the proposed notation is suitable for representing programming concepts and easy to understand. We also present a series of improvements, integrated as a new subsystem in the aforementioned platform, which allows the automatic construction of 3-D visualizations on an augmented reality environment. These visualizations use the proposed notation and leverage the scalability and architecture of COLLECE-2.0.