Analyzing the influence of a visualization system on students’ emotions: An empirical case study

Abstract

Visualization systems are a class of tools that may potentially have a positive impact on students’ emotions. We have investigated this issue in computer science education, where there is a long tradition in researching on the impact of program and algorithm visualization on students. We designed a quasi-experimental study to analyze the variations in positive and negative emotions that students experience during their learning process. To address the limitations of quasi-experimental designs, we also considered other factors that might affect changes in students’ emotions, namely educational context, students’ personal profiles, students’ previous knowledge, subjective perception of their knowledge of the topic, their valuation of the visualization tool, and the cognitive load associated to the activity in general. Afterward, the quasi-experiment was replicated to contrast results. The article has three main contributions to studies on emotions in computer science education. Firstly, we obtained evidence that negative emotions decreased after using a visualization tool, while positive emotions remained invariant. Secondly, we identified a factor that influenced the emotions that students experienced on supporting their learning with visualization tools: the valuation of the visualization tool. Non-conclusive results were obtained about another factor, namely the university where students were enrolled. Thirdly, as a part of both evaluations, two scales were developed and calibrated (about students' subjective perception of their knowledge of the topic and students' valuation of the visualization tool).