Design and architecture of an interactive eTextbook – The OpenDSA system

• Discusses the OpenDSA eTextbook project.
• Describes the design philosophy.
• Presents in detail the OpenDSA architecture.
• Presents examples of OpenDSA material.
• Briefly discusses some evaluations of OpenDSA.

The OpenDSA Project seeks to provide complete instructional materials for data structures and algorithms (DSA) courses. Our vision for a highly interactive eTextbook involves the use of many algorithm visualizations (AVs) and a wide range of interactive exercises with automated assessment. To realize this vision we require a mix of third-party and custom software components that make up a client/server-based web application. The massive amount content development required compels us to adopt an appropriate mix of open-source practices that will encourage broad contribution to the project. In this paper we describe the OpenDSA system architecture and the design goals that led to the present version of the system.