| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 17, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 17, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1432008 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Stephanie August
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | January 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $716,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $716,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
300 TURNER ST NW BLACKSBURG VA US 24060-3359 (540)231-5281 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
620 Drillfield Drive Blacksburg VA US 24061-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
S-STEM-Schlr Sci Tech Eng&Math, IUSE |
| Primary Program Source: |
1300XXXXDB H-1B FUND, EDU, NSF |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
OpenDSA is an open source project with international collaboration that has the potential to fundamentally change instruction in courses on Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) and Formal Languages and Automata (FLA). By combining textbook-quality content with visualization and a rich collection of automatically assessed interactive exercises, OpenDSA helps students better understand the behavior of algorithms and their effects over time on data structures.
This project will scale up OpenDSA in a number of ways. The highly successful JFLAP software for interactive instruction on FLA will be redeployed within the OpenDSA framework using HTML5 standards, thereby increasing access. A wide range of colleges and universities will be involved in disseminating OpenDSA and assessing its impact on student learning, and OpenDSA's use in a number of innovative instructional settings will be explored. The OpenDSA infrastructure will be enriched, allowing instructors to tailor the materials to their specific classroom needs, and encouraging new content contributions from these instructors. A number of technical pedagogical experiments will be conducted, such as measuring the effects of augmenting content with audio narration in slideshows, and navigation through topics with concept maps. A study of how these materials can improve teaching in a range of courses for which relevant content was created. These efforts will have an impact on future active eTextbook projects by demonstrating successful ways to integrate content, interactivity, and assessment in an open-source, creative-commons environment by focusing on the effects on student learning of integrating content with visualizations and a rich collection of practice exercises with automated feedback. In addition, this project will study how using eTextbook materials affects the evolving pedagogical approaches of instructors of DSA and FLA courses and will experiment with new models of dissemination for open-source content in conjunction with commercial online content publishers.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
By combining textbook-quality content with visualization and a rich collection of automatically assessed interactive exercises, OpenDSA has improved instruction for a number of computing courses such as Data Structures and Algorithms, Formal Languages, and Programming Languages. Students often find this material difficult to comprehend because much of the content is about dynamic processes, such as the behavior of algorithms and their effects over time on data structures. Static media (textbooks) do a poor job of conveying dynamic process. Algorithm visualizations (AVs) have been demonstrated to be pedagogically effective for presenting this material, but adoption has been lower than documented instructor support would indicate. OpenDSA’s complete units of instruction help to ease the adoption problems that have plagued previous standalone AV efforts.
The greatest difficulty that computing students encounter is lack of practice and lack of feedback about whether they understand the material. A typical course offers only a small number of homework problems and test problems, whose results come only long after the student gives an answer. OpenDSA provides a steady stream of exercises and activities with automated grading and immediate feedback on performance. Students (and instructors) can better know that they are on track.
OpenDSA includes both content and infrastruture for delivering content. As such, OpenDSA's eTextbook infrastructure can have a major impact, both as an exemplar and in its direct impact on various courses. Beyond Computer Science, the models we provide for architecting, using in class, disseminating, and assessing eTextbook materials are broadly applicable across a range of STEM and non-STEM disciplines. Prior research indicates that online instruction in many fields can be enhanced by student interaction with well designed exercises. Our materials provide an exemplar of how collaborative, open-sourced work-flows could be used to develop active eTextbooks for many disciplines.
Over the life of this grant, OpenDSA materials have been used by tens of thousands of students at dozens of instititions around the world. We expect the project to see continued use, and to influence the future developement of online educational materials, for many years to come.
Last Modified: 10/10/2019
Modified by: Clifford A Shaffer
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