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Design and Analysis of Survey to Investigate Data Structure Understanding
by
Jhilmil Jain
Auburn University
Coauthors: Nedret Billor, Dean Hendrix, and James H. Cross II
In this paper, we will discuss the design and analysis of a survey that we conducted to get an idea of which data structures were most difficult to understand conceptually and which ones are difficult to implement using Java in an introductory level data structure course (COMP2210) at Auburn University. We asked questions regarding the student’s background and Java experience. Next each data structure was rated at three levels of understanding (abstract, implementation, and application) using the 5-point Likert scale. The independent variable is the type of data structure, which is a nominal scale and the three levels are the dependent variables each of which is an ordinal scale. Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel method was used to analyze associations among the different understanding levels for each of the data structure, and next to analyze the association among the different data structures for each understanding level.
Date received: October 4, 2005
Copyright © 2005 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # carm-13.