Collaborative Active Textbooks: a Web-based algorithm animation system for an electronic classroom

Abstract

The paper describes CAT, a Web-based algorithm animation system. CAT augments the expressive power of Web pages for publishing passive multimedia information with a full-fledged interactive algorithm animation system. It improves on previous Web-based algorithm animations by providing a framework that makes it easy to construct new animations, including those that involve multiple views. Because views of the same running algorithm may reside on different machines, CAT is particularly well-suited for electronic classrooms. This strategy is an improvement over the electronic classroom systems the authors are aware of which simply display the same X window on multiple machines. They believe their framework generalizes to electronic textbooks in arbitrary domains.