<p><a>In animated film production, a great bulk of work goes into animating and scene layout. Currently, the industry is centered around flat screens and keyboard and mouse interfaces, which require a substantial amount of time to lay out scene sets and animate shots, resulting in high production costs and lengthy production schedules. This study was designed to determine whether immersive VR interfaces could reduce the time taken to lay out 3D scene sets and animate those scenes compared to traditional interfaces. More specifically, this study compared the time 38 participants took to set up and animate a 3D scene by using two different interfaces, e.g. a VR immersive interface and a traditional mouse and keyboard interface. Further, the study investigated subjects’ interface preference. Findings show that the virtual reality interface was about twice as fast for laying out the scene as the traditional interface. When surveyed, participants preferred the virtual reality interface by a large margin over the provided traditional interface.</a></p>

University students learning object-oriented programming (OOP) encounter many complexities. This study undertook empirical research aimed at analysing learners’ interactions with the Alice visual programming environment, which seeks to engage and motivate learners to grasp concepts of OOP, whilst creating animated movies and video games. A mixed-methods approach was employed, using questionnaire surveys and interviews to investigate learners’ experiences with Alice and their understanding of OOP. Findings indicated that learners lacked problem-solving abilities; were unable to grasp programming concepts on an abstract level and spent insufficient time practicing programming exercises. Alice proved to be an effective tool in helping to address these challenges and in improving learners’ grasp of OOP. Learners found Alice to have good usability. Furthermore, test and exam results revealed a statistically significant difference between performances of learners who had been taught Alice in comparison to similar learners who were not exposed to the Alice intervention. / Computing / Information Systems / M. Sc. (Information systems)

University students learning object-oriented programming (OOP) encounter many complexities. This study undertook empirical research aimed at analysing learners’ interactions with the Alice visual programming environment, which seeks to engage and motivate learners to grasp concepts of OOP, whilst creating animated movies and video games. A mixed-methods approach was employed, using questionnaire surveys and interviews to investigate learners’ experiences with Alice and their understanding of OOP. Findings indicated that learners lacked problem-solving abilities; were unable to grasp programming concepts on an abstract level and spent insufficient time practicing programming exercises. Alice proved to be an effective tool in helping to address these challenges and in improving learners’ grasp of OOP. Learners found Alice to have good usability. Furthermore, test and exam results revealed a statistically significant difference between performances of learners who had been taught Alice in comparison to similar learners who were not exposed to the Alice intervention. / Computing / Information Systems / M. Sc. (Information systems)