Targeting Program Visualizations

To instruct students on the rise of visualizations most beneficially the teacher needs to know who the students are that use the visualizations, for what they use them, and what kind of problems they have. Empirical research has been carried out on the educational impact of visualizations in test situations, but this survey presents the students' normal way of studying when the use of visualizations is voluntary. We present; the results of an international survey of 3:35 students who are studying programming and whose teachers have offered visualizations as extra material for the students. Their teachers also answered the survey. The article analyses different kinds of student groups, their usage of visualizations, and problems with them. We explore the background and motivation of the students and compare this information to their experiences of the use of the visualizations. We identified two groups of students who use visualizations differently: moderately successful students able to work independently and weaker students who need teachers guidance with the visualizations. We suggest tips for teachers on how to use visualizations in teaching and provide information for the development of program visualization tools.