This paper describes GraphPad, a web-based software tool designed not only to help an instructor of a CS2 or CS7 (data structures) course deliver content and assess student performance, but also to provide an instructor with the unique ability to observe and understand how students solve problems by replaying the students' solutions. GraphPad works with Tablet PCs or PCs with attached WACOM tablets. We describe how GraphPad enables an instructor to: establish a temporary network with the instructor's Tablet as server and the students' Tablets as clients, broadcast instructions and collect student Ink responses, evaluate student submissions and distribute evaluations with a single button-click, use student submissions as examples to guide lecture, and save student submissions in a database. The saved submissions may be replayed and reviewed individually, tagged for errors, and analyzed statistically. We are currently using GraphPad almost daily in a data structures course. A long term goal is to analyze data collected by GraphPad to help understand the thought process of computer science students for the purpose of identifying students at risk early in order to provide intervention assistance.
