An interactive spreadsheet for teaching the forward-backward algorithm
Jason M. Eisner · 2002
This paper offers a detailed lesson plan on the forward-backward algorithm. The lesson is taught from a live, commented spreadsheet that implements the algorithm and graphs its behavior on a whimsical toy example. By experimenting with different inputs, one can help students develop intuitions about HMMs in particular and Expectation Maximization in general. The spreadsheet and a coordinated follow-up assignment are available.