The objective of this proposal is to equip a classroom for the purpose of conducting closed laboratories for CS1 and CS2 courses. The equipment requested includes IBM compatible 486 microcomputers and support hardware and software such as Novell Netware, a laser printer, Microsoft WIindows, and Turbo Pascal.The laboratory exercises conducted in this classroom will follow the model for introductory programming labs which has emerged in the literature. However, these labs will be interactive in the following sense: A GUI shell program will guide students through the tasks and activities of the lab, providing access to required resources such as compilers and demonstration programs. Students will interact with this shell in the standard way, via controls such as icons, buttons, menus, etc. The proposers believe this new environment will be significantly more engaging and stimulating for the student, aiding the recruitment and retention of potential majors in Computer Science. Each shell program would be a free-standing Windows application, and thus can be used as is by instructors at other institutions.The authors propose development of an object-oriented framework to support the quick and efficient coding of these lab shell applications. This framework would capture the design of the shell applications as well as the model upon which they are based. With minimal knowledge, other instructors could use the framework to develop interactive lab exercises customized to their own student body and interests. Moreover, the framework could be used to devlop lab exercises for other CS courses also. Thus, this lab framework would represent a significant contribution to instructional technology.
