GoodFor: Semi-colon separated list containing one or more of the following values.
Teaching the Concept: An instructor could use this visualization as part of a lecture or give instructions in a homework/lab assignment for students to follow. Must include a good default dataset that shows some interesting (or at least typical) behavior of the algorithm. These tend to be conceptual rather than implementation-focused.
Exploring the Concept: As students gain knowledge about the concept, this visualization can be used for them to experiment on their own without explicit direction. Often, these allow users to enter their own data. These can be conceptual or implementation-focused.
Debugging: This visualization has an API or support for plugging into student code, so students can see visually what their code is doing in the machine. These tend to be implementation-focused, but their output may be conceptual or machine-oriented. Alternatively, the AV might simply serve to illustrate the exact steps that a student's code should follow or outcome that it should produce. The student can then debug her output by comparing it to the visualization.
Comparison: Students or instructors could use the visualization to illustrate the differences and similarities between algorithms that operate in the same domain or competing data structures.
Lecture Aid: The visualization is best used during lecture by an instructor who is using the AV to illustrate an algorithm that they are simultaneously explaining to the class. Without this accompanying explanation by an instructor, the visualization itself does not explain or make clear the algorithm that it portrays.
Lab Exercise: The visualization offers ways of interactively testing the learner's understanding of the algorithm. Examples would be pop-up questions that ask the viewer to predict what will happen next in the algorithm's execution or the opportunity to create input data sets that exercise the algorithm in some prescribed fashion.
Self Study: The visualization is provided in the context of supplementary text that describes the algorithm in a fashion similar to a textbook explanation of the algorithm.
Nothing: Rarely used, this indicates that the AV is judged to have no pedagogical use.