Elucidate: a tool to aid comprehension of concurrent object oriented execution
Proceedings of the 5th annual SIGCSE/SIGCUE ITiCSEconference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
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Understanding the intricacies behind concurrency within object-oriented programming languages has always been a challenge for undergraduate students. While the lecture is a relatively passive learning experience for the student, the use of software visualisation offers the chance to examine the concepts covered in the lecture in an interactive, visual environment. Students can add further dimensions and greater depth to their understanding previously hindered by the pedagogy of this passive environment. Elucidate makes use of the JDI architecture in the Java language to create its own environment that allows students to execute any program within it. Elucidate utilises several information workspaces, each presenting a different perspective about the information, thus facilitating a students ability to employ it in a manner that best allows them to construct their own understanding. Students are able to navigate around multiple views, and through various levels of abstraction, revealing the inner workings and sequence of events in what would otherwise be a black-box program.