Extending an In-Browser C Interpreter With an Abstracted Model of theMemory

Abstract: Traditionally, computer science concepts have been taught using blackboards. In recent years, however, online learning platforms have become an alternative fore ducators as a way of illustrating complicated concepts. This thesis describes the extension of one such platform, Codecast, with the purpose to provide educators at Uppsala University with a tool that can teach students an abstracted model of the memory of a C program. An evaluation performed on second year students indicates that the tool can be beneficial when trying to illustrate memory related concepts.They showed a better understanding of memory pointers than their peers, and were also more inclined to focus on low level details of the memory. However, as the evaluation was small and limited in scope, a more in-depth study is required to determine whether tools such as these can help the students' understanding of this subject.