2026-09-18T23:43:50Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/1392822022-01-15T03:15:41Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131023
Goldman, Max
Whatley, Daniel
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
2022-01-14T15:01:20Z
2022-01-14T15:01:20Z
2021-06
2021-06-17T20:14:47.749Z
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139282
Snapshot diagrams, which visualize in-memory program state, are frequently used in programming education to demonstrate new concepts and help students develop a better understanding of program functionality. This thesis introduces Snapdown, a textual language for drawing snapshot diagrams, designed for use by both students and instructors of programming courses. Snapdown is designed with an emphasis on learnability and simplicity: both to be picked up by students in a classroom setting in a matter of minutes, and to enable creation and maintenance of diagrams in instructional content with minimal overhead. I introduce several use cases of Snapdown and describe the design and features of its textual language. I also describe a deployment of Snapdown during two semesters of emergency remote teaching in MIT software engineering course 6.031 Software Construction, in which students used it to complete pre-class reading exercises and in-class collaborative exercises. Finally, I demonstrate that Snapdown is generally applicable by using it to replicate over 100 diagrams from introductory- and intermediate-level courses at a variety of institutions.
M.Eng.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Copyright MIT
http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/
Snapdown: A Text-Based Snapshot Diagram Language for Programming Education
Thesis
application/pdf
Master
Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Publication
unknown
unknown
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<Abstract>Snapshot diagrams, which visualize in-memory program state, are frequently used in programming education to demonstrate new concepts and help students develop a better understanding of program functionality. This thesis introduces Snapdown, a textual language for drawing snapshot diagrams, designed for use by both students and instructors of programming courses. Snapdown is designed with an emphasis on learnability and simplicity: both to be picked up by students in a classroom setting in a matter of minutes, and to enable creation and maintenance of diagrams in instructional content with minimal overhead. I introduce several use cases of Snapdown and describe the design and features of its textual language. I also describe a deployment of Snapdown during two semesters of emergency remote teaching in MIT software engineering course 6.031 Software Construction, in which students used it to complete pre-class reading exercises and in-class collaborative exercises. Finally, I demonstrate that Snapdown is generally applicable by using it to replicate over 100 diagrams from introductory- and intermediate-level courses at a variety of institutions.</Abstract>
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