Algorithm Analysis in OpenDSA : An Online, Open Source, Interactive Platform for Data Structures

New methods and opportunities for learning have appeared through the arrival of electronic learning frameworks. Over the past few years, several eLearning environments have been created by experts in the field to make collaborative teaching possible for both teachers and learners. Project OpenDSA is an online, open source, interactive data structures and algorithms course with the objective of developing a complete interactive book for courses in data structures and algorithms. Though designed with the purpose of enhancing efficiency in student learning in mind, some of the chapters have proved quite challenging for the students. The chapter under scrutiny in this thesis has to do with algorithm analysis. Students have struggled with this particular chapter more than with any other. The purpose of this thesis project is to discover the roots of the aforementioned challenges and devise creative and student-friendly tools and interactions for overcoming the learning obstacles. The first step this thesis has taken towards tackling the learning challenges in this chapter, has been to create a visualization for a set of growth rate functions inside an online graphing calculator. The next implementation step has been to create novel exercise types for the chapter summary exercises. The following five interactive question types for this chapter have been implemented: Matching questions, Ordering questions, Fill-in-the-blank questions, Error-guessing questions, and multiple-choice questions on code snippets. At least two sample questions for each of these question types have been developed