Notebook-Based Labs for Data Structures: Reducing Setup Friction Without Hiding Computational Cost

Sabbir Hosen Mamun, Thorsten K. Wiegand, Priya S. Nair

ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, pp. 319-326, Milan, Italy · ACM

Conference20248 citations

Abstract

Interactive notebooks can make data-structures labs easier to start, but they risk obscuring runtime, memory, and modularity concerns. We describe a notebook lab design that exposes traces, heap diagrams, and timing probes alongside conventional implementation tasks. In two course offerings, students completed setup faster and produced more accurate complexity explanations, while final project performance remained comparable to the traditional IDE-based cohort.

Cite this work

@inproceedings{Mamun2024NotebookBased,
  title = {Notebook-Based Labs for Data Structures: Reducing Setup Friction Without Hiding Computational Cost},
  author = {Sabbir Hosen Mamun and Thorsten K. Wiegand and Priya S. Nair},
  year = {2024},
  booktitle = {ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education},
  pages = {319-326},
  address = {Milan, Italy},
  publisher = {ACM},
  series = {ITiCSE '24},
  abstract = {Interactive notebooks can make data-structures labs easier to start, but they risk obscuring runtime, memory, and modularity concerns. We describe a notebook lab design that exposes traces, heap diagrams, and timing probes alongside conventional implementation tasks. In two course offerings, students completed setup faster and produced more accurate complexity explanations, while final project performance remained comparable to the traditional IDE-based cohort.},
}