Visual Plan Construct Language (VPCL)

Abstract

Teaching and learning programming can be enhanced by the incorporation of visualization. A system and method that the author created, known as Visual Plan Construct Language (VPCL), incorporates programming visualization for teaching, learning programming, and problem solving. VPCL contains a Plan Library that is accessible through the Web. A user can create and establish a working space and environment on the system to examine VPCL plan library and develop one's own plan library. VPCL consists of three phases: Plan Observation, Plan Integration, and Plan Creation. The observation phase rehearses how a program is broken down into smaller components with their integration relationship. The integration phase concentrates on how two plans are related to each other in building a program. The methods of integration are known as appended, interleaved, branched, and embedded. The creation phase concentrates on how a new plan is built using the existing plans from the plan library.