AST[AR] – Towards Using Augmented Reality and Abstract Syntax Trees for Teaching Data Structures To Novice Programmers
Vartika Agrahari, Sridhar Chimalakonda · 2020
Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the emerging technologies which helps in enhancing user experience by providing a composite view of the real-world objects. It supports the user with superimposed information on top of the object, thus creating a live experience. Besides, coding is pervasive in today's world, and there is a strong need for well-equipped developers with thorough theoretical and practical knowledge. Data Structures and Abstract Syntax Trees are two of the fundamental topics of the computer science domain. Data structures help in the organization of data, whereas, Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) enable better comprehension of source code by syntactically analyzing it. In this paper, we propose an augmented reality-based software application AST[AR] to teach data structures with the help of ASTs. We conducted a user experience study with 30 volunteers and got positive feedback from 80.6% of the participants. We believe that this software application will help in bifold learning of data structures as well as ASTs with exciting and enjoyable user experience.