Browsing by Author "Chase, Joseph D."

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    A Comparison of Three Cursor Control Devices on a Cursor Control Benchmark Task
    Chase, Joseph D.; Casali, Sherry P. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 1991)
    A number of past studies have compared performance of cursor control devices. Conclusions regarding the "best" device for a particular application are difficult to draw because the tasks used in previous comparisons have differed from one another and have not included all of the factors affecting performance with the devices. The present study used a target acquisition task whose components were derived from analyzing the cursor control device movements of users while performing actual tasks. The components of the task were target size, target distance, direction, and mode (i.e., point-and-click vs. drag). Three cursor control devices, cursor keys, mouse, and trackball, were each used by 12 subjects to perform the task. Results indicate the mouse and trackball perform similarly in most cases. The cursor keys always performed more poorly than the other devices. Hence, the mouse and trackball are preferable to the cursor keys based on objective measure of user performance. In conditions where cursor keys are necessary, careful attention should be paid to aspects of the interface listed above in order to attain the highest level of performance possible.
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    A controlled experiment to identify and test a representative primitive set of user object-oriented cursor actions
    Chase, Joseph D. (Virginia Tech, 1990-07-06)
    A method for decomposing the user cursor action component of human-computer interfaces into individual components based on the four categories: target size, target distance, target direction, and selection mode, was investigated. A primitive task set consisting of the Cartesian product of specific elements of the four categories listed above was proposed based on observation of user tasks and a cursor action benchmark task set was developed to measure a user's performance for each element of the set of primitive elements with a given cursor control device. An experiment was conducted to test the proposed primitive task set and associated benchmark task set as a predictor of performance for a set of representative graphics tasks. The predicted times and actual times were shown to have very strong correlations and the data were also shown to conform to Fitts' Law. A description of the experiment, the data collected, and the analysis of these data are included.
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    Design Readiness: An Exploratory Model of Object-Oriented Design Performance
    Lewis, Tracy L. (Virginia Tech, 2004-07-16)
    The available literature supports the fact that some students experience difficulty learning object-oriented design (OOD) principles. Previously explored predictors of OOD learning difficulties include student characteristics (cognitive activities, self-efficacy), teaching methodologies (teacher centered, course complexity), and student experiences (prior programming experience). Yet, within an extensive body of literature devoted to OOD, two explanations of student difficulty remain largely unexplored: (1) varying conceptualizations of the underlying principles/strategies of OOD, and (2) preparedness or readiness to learn OOD. This research also investigated the extent to which individual differences impacted DRAS and OOD performance. The individual difference measures of interest in this study included college grade point average, prior programming experience, cognitive abilities (spatial orientation, visualization, logical reasoning, flexibility, perceptual style), and design readiness. In addition, OOD performance was measured using two constructs: course grade (exams, labs, programs, overall), and a specially constructed design task. Participants selected from the CS2 course from two southeastern state universities were used within this study, resulting in a sample size of 161 (School A, n = 76; School B, n = 85). School A is a mid-sized comprehensive university and School B is a large research-intensive university. If was found that the schools significantly differed on all measures of prior computer science experience and cognitive abilities. Path analysis was conducted to determine which individual differences were related to design readiness and OOD performance. In summary, this research identified that instructors can not ignore individual differences when teaching OOD. It was found that the cognitive ability visualization, prior OO experience, and overall college grade point average should be considered when teaching OOD. As it stands, without identifying specific teaching strategies used at the schools within this study, this research implies that OOD may require a certain level of practical computer experience before OOD is introduced into the curriculum. The cognitive ability visualization was found to have a significant indirect relationship with overall course grade through the mediating variable design readiness. Further, the results suggest that the DRAS may serve as a viable instrument in identifying successful OOD students as well as students that require supplemental OOD instruction.
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    Development and Evaluation of a Model of Behavioral Representation Techniques
    Chase, Joseph D.; Schulman, Robert S.; Hartson, H. Rex; Hix, Deborah (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 1993)
    A user-centered approach to interactive system development requires a way to represent the behavior of a user interacting with an interface. While a number of behavioral representation techniques exist, not all provide the capabilities necessary to support the interaction development process. Based on observations of existing representation techniques and comments from users of the User Action Notation (UAN), a user- and task-centered behavioral representation technique, we have developed a model of behavioral representation techniques. Our model is an epistemological framework for discussing, analyzing, extending, and comparing existing behavioral representation techniques, as well as being a springboard for developing and evaluating new techniques. We present the model and results of our evaluation demonstrating the model's reusability and utility within the context of behavioral representation techniques.
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    Implications on the Learning of Programming Through the Implementation of Subsets in Program Development Environments
    DePasquale, Peter Joseph III (Virginia Tech, 2003-07-17)
    The undergraduate Computer Science program at Virginia Tech is the largest in the Commonwealth of Virginia, of which a key component is ``CS 1044: Introduction to Programming'', and is typical of a first course in computer programming throughout the USA. While the student access to learning resources has improved considerably with the development of web-based assets, students are still expected to use the same sophisticated program development tools as are used in industry. The perceived complexity of the learning environment currently in use drives many women and minority students from the Computer Science program. A great deal of attention has been paid to the need to administer the student assignments and the grading system for this course, so as to minimize the teaching/grading load, but little attention has been paid to the methodologies of learning the material through practice. The work reported herein is intended to improve the pedagogy of this course by creating and integrating teaching/learning tools that better manage the student's engagement in the use of program development activities. Following the implementation of a three-element software system involving an interpreter for the C-language, a program development environment, and a data-monitoring/collectiondevice, the system was deployed in support of the freshman course in parallel to the commercial system commonly used. The experiment concentrated on examining the impact of the simplified development environment and the effort required for students to complete assigned programming projects.
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    Peer Review in CS2: the Effects on Attitudes, Engagement, and Conceptual Learning
    Turner, Scott Alexander (Virginia Tech, 2009-08-13)
    In computer science, students could benefit from exposure to critical programming concepts from multiple perspectives. Peer review is one method to allow students to experience authentic uses of the concepts in a non-programming manner. Peer review provides students with the opportunity to evaluate other people's work and, in doing so, allows for a rich learning experience. While much is known about peer review and it has many uses in other disciplines, the literature, especially in computer science, does not spend much time on the perspective of and benefits to the reviewer. In this work, we examine how to implement the peer review process in early, object-oriented, computer science courses as a way to develop the reviewers' higher-level thinking skills, increase their knowledge of specific programming concepts, and to improve attitudes to help engage them in the activity. Specifically, we explore peer review and its effects on Abstraction, Decomposition, and Encapsulation and how the type of review (students reviewing their peers or reviewing materials from their instructor), influences these effects. We also look at how the students' attitudes relate to their engagement in and the benefits from the reviews. To study these ideas, we used peer review exercises in two CS2 classes at local universities over the course of a semester. We divided the students into three groups where one group reviewed their peers, one group reviewed their instructor, and one group completed small design or coding exercises. We measured the students' attitudes and their conceptual understanding during the semester with surveys, tests, and concept maps. We collected the completed reviews as well. We found that reviewing helped students learn Decomposition, especially those reviewing the instructor's programs. We did not find evidence of improvements to the students' level of thinking over the semester nor were there significant changes in their attitudes. However, the data showed that students assigned to review their peers were less likely to complete the assignments than the other students were. Overall, peer reviews are a valuable method for teaching Decomposition to CS2 students and can be used as an alternative way to learn object-oriented programming concepts.
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    A study to develop and evaluate a taxonomic model of behavioral techniques for representing user interface designs
    Chase, Joseph D. (Virginia Tech, 1994-04-06)
    A user-centered approach to interactive system development requires a way to represent the behavior of a user interacting with an interface. While a number of behavioral representation techniques exist, not all provide the capabilities necessary to support the interaction development process. The original goal of this research was to modify and extend the User Action Notation (UAN), a user- and task-centered behavioral representation technique. In order to facilitate and evaluate the improvement in the UAN, we developed and evaluated a taxonomic model of behavioral representation techniques. The development and evaluation of our model followed the epistemological cycle of observation, theorization, and evaluation. The model provides a framework for discussing, analyzing, extending, and comparing existing behavioral representation techniques, as well as being a springboard for developing and evaluating new techniques.