poster

Using game design mechanics as metaphors to enhance learning of introductory programming concepts

Authors:

Chaima Jemmali,

Erica Kleinman,

Mia Victoria Almeda,

Elizabeth Rowe,

Magy Seif El-NasrAuthors Info & Claims

FDG '19: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

Article No.: 65, Pages 1 - 5

https://doi.org/10.1145/3337722.3341825

Published: 26 August 2019 Publication History

Abstract

There are several educational games and tools that teach programming. However, very few offer a deep understanding of Computer Science concepts such as Abstraction, Modularity, Semantics, and Debugging. We present May's Journey, an educational game that supports learning of basic programming concepts, where players solve puzzles and interact with the environment by typing in a custom programming language. The game design seamlessly integrates learning goals, core mechanics, and narrative elements. We discuss how we integrate the CS concepts mentioned above using game mechanic metaphors.

References

[1]

David Boud and Grahame Feletti. 2013. The challenge of problem-based learning. Routledge.

[2]

Stephen Cooper, Wanda Dann, and Randy Pausch. 2000. Alice: a 3-D tool for introductory programming concepts. In Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Vol. 15. Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges, 107--116.

Digital Library

[3]

Giuliana Dettori and Ana Paiva. 2009. Narrative learning in technology-enhanced environments. Technology-Enhanced Learning (2009), 55--69.

[4]

Reinders Duit. 1991. On the role of analogies and metaphors in learning science. Science education 75, 6 (1991), 649--672.

[5]

Shaun Gallagher and Robb Lindgren. 2015. Enactive metaphors: Learning through full-body engagement. Educational Psychology Review 27, 3 (2015), 391--404.

[6]

Shuchi Grover and Satabdi Basu. 2017. Measuring student learning in introductory block-based programming: Examining misconceptions of loops, variables, and boolean logic. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. ACM, 267--272.

Digital Library

[7]

Chaima Jemmali, Sara Bunian, Andrea Mambretti, and Magy Seif El-Nasr. 2018. Educational Game Design: An Empirical Study of the Effects of Narrative. learning 66 (2018), 68.

[8]

Chaima Jemmali and Zijian Yang. 2016. May's Journey: A serious game to teach middle and high school girls programming. Master's thesis. Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

[9]

D Midian Kurland, Catherine A Clement, Ronald Mawby, and Roy D Pea. 1987. Mapping the cognitive demands of learning to program. In Mirrors of Minds: Patterns of experience in educational computing. Ablex Publishing Corp., 103--127.

Digital Library

[10]

Essi Lahtinen, Kirsti Ala-Mutka, and Hannu-Matti Järvinen. 2005. A study of the difficulties of novice programmers. In Acm Sigcse Bulletin, Vol. 37. ACM, 14--18.

Digital Library

[11]

John H Maloney, Kylie Peppler, Yasmin Kafai, Mitchel Resnick, and Natalie Rusk. 2008. Programming by choice: urban youth learning programming with scratch. Vol. 40. ACM.

Digital Library

[12]

Richard E Mayer. 1992. Teaching for transfer of problem-solving skills to computer programming. In Computer-based learning environments and problem solving. Springer, 193--206.

[13]

Michael A Miljanovic and Jeremy S Bradbury. 2018. A Review of Serious Games for Programming. In Joint International Conference on Serious Games. Springer, 204--216.

[14]

Kai Niebert and Harald Gropengießer. 2011. âĂIJCO 2 Causes a Hole in the AtmosphereâĂİ: Using LaypeopleâĂ&Zacute;s Conceptions as a Starting Point to Communicate Climate Change. In The economic, social and political elements of climate change. Springer, 603--622.

[15]

Kai Niebert, Sabine Marsch, and David F Treagust. 2012. Understanding needs embodiment: A theory-guided reanalysis of the role of metaphors and analogies in understanding science. Science Education 96, 5 (2012), 849--877.

[16]

Velian T Pandeliev and Ronald M Baecker. 2010. A framework for the online evaluation of serious games. In Proceedings of the International Academic Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology. ACM, 239--242.

Digital Library

[17]

Roy D Pea. 1987. Logo programming and problem solving. (1987).

[18]

Arnold Pears, Stephen Seidman, Lauri Malmi, Linda Mannila, Elizabeth Adams, Jens Bennedsen, Marie Devlin, and James Paterson. 2007. A survey of literature on the teaching of introductory programming. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 39, 4 (2007), 204--223.

Digital Library

[19]

Miriam Reiner, James D Slotta, Michelene TH Chi, and Lauren B Resnick. 2000. Naive physics reasoning: A commitment to substance-based conceptions. Cognition and instruction 18, 1 (2000), 1--34.

[20]

Mitchel Resnick, John Maloney, Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Natalie Rusk, Evelyn Eastmond, Karen Brennan, Amon Millner, Eric Rosenbaum, Jay Silver, Brian Silverman, et al. 2009. Scratch: programming for all. Commun. ACM 52, 11 (2009), 60--67.

Digital Library

[21]

Tanja Riemeier and Harald Gropengießer. 2008. On the roots of difficulties in learning about cell division: process-based analysis of studentsâĂ&Zacute; conceptual development in teaching experiments. International Journal of Science Education 30, 7 (2008), 923--939.

[22]

Ralf Romeike. 2008. What's my challenge? The forgotten part of problem solving in computer science education. Informatics Education-Supporting Computational Thinking (2008), 122--133.

Digital Library

[23]

Adilson Vahldick, António José Mendes, and Maria José Marcelino. 2014. A review of games designed to improve introductory computer programming competencies. In 2014 IEEE frontiers in education conference (FIE) proceedings. IEEE, 1--7.

[24]

Marianne Wiser and Tamer Amin. 2001. âĂIJIs heat hot?âĂİ Inducing conceptual change by integrating everyday and scientific perspectives on thermal phenomena. Learning and Instruction 11, 4-5 (2001), 331--355.

[25]

Diana F Wood. 2003. ABC of learning and teaching in medicine: Problem based learning. BMJ: British Medical Journal 326, 7384 (2003), 328.

[26]

Haibin Zhu and MengChu Zhou. 2003. Methodology first and language second: A way to teach object-oriented programming. In Companion of the 18th annual ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications. ACM, 140--147.

Digital Library

Cited By

Kátai ZOsztián PIclanzan D(2024)Enacting algorithms: Evolution of the algorythmics storytellingEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-024-12617-y29:14(19197-19228)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10639-024-12617-y
FİŞ ERÜMİT SKALYONCU FKUZU AKARAL H(2022)Educational Digital Game Design Process For Different Player TypesFARKLI OYUNCU TİPLERİNE GÖRE EĞİTSEL DİJİTAL OYUN TASARIM SÜRECİKastamonu Eğitim Dergisi10.24106/kefdergi.87787430:1(217-235)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2022
https://doi.org/10.24106/kefdergi.877874
Allegra MBongiovanni ACittà GCusimano ADal Grande VGentile MKisslinger ALa Guardia DLiguori GLo Presti FPerna SPicciotto SOttaviano SSala CSigna A(2021)The Role of Metaphor in Serious Games Design: the BubbleMumble Case StudyGames and Learning Alliance10.1007/978-3-030-92182-8_19(198-207)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92182-8_19
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Using game design mechanics as metaphors to enhance learning of introductory programming concepts
1. Applied computing
  1. Education
    1. Interactive learning environments
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Interaction design
    1. Interaction design process and methods
      1. Scenario-based design

Recommendations

Game design and didactic transposition of knowledge. The case of progo, a game dedicated to learning object-oriented programming
Abstract
Game based-learning have been widely promoted to overcome the difficulties encountered by beginners to learn programming. However, there are many issues to address for the implementation of game-based learning. Indeed, game-based learning is not ...
Undergraduates Teach Game Programming Using Scratch

A new class at the University of Washington Bothell trains undergraduate computer science majors to teach coding concepts to middle school students using the game-programming language Scratch.
Non-Programming Activities for Engagement with Foundational Concepts in Introductory Programming
SIGCSE '19: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Programming-in a text-based or visual language-is a complex activity that novices find difficult to learn. In this paper, we present an experience report on how novel activities designed for early conceptual exploration can support middle school ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

FDG '19: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

August 2019

822 pages

ISBN:9781450372176

DOI:10.1145/3337722

Conference Chair:
Sebastian Deterding
University of York
,
General Chair:
Foaad Khosmood
California Polytechnic State University
,
Program Chairs:
Johanna Pirker
Graz University of Technology
,
Thomas Apperley
CEGCS Tampere University

Copyright © 2019 Owner/Author.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 August 2019

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Poster

Conference

FDG '19

FDG '19: The Fourteenth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

August 26 - 30, 2019

California, San Luis Obispo, USA

Acceptance Rates

FDG '19 Paper Acceptance Rate 46 of 124 submissions, 37%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 152 of 415 submissions, 37%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

4
Total Citations
View Citations
258
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)21
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1

Reflects downloads up to 22 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Kátai ZOsztián PIclanzan D(2024)Enacting algorithms: Evolution of the algorythmics storytellingEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-024-12617-y29:14(19197-19228)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10639-024-12617-y
FİŞ ERÜMİT SKALYONCU FKUZU AKARAL H(2022)Educational Digital Game Design Process For Different Player TypesFARKLI OYUNCU TİPLERİNE GÖRE EĞİTSEL DİJİTAL OYUN TASARIM SÜRECİKastamonu Eğitim Dergisi10.24106/kefdergi.87787430:1(217-235)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2022
https://doi.org/10.24106/kefdergi.877874
Allegra MBongiovanni ACittà GCusimano ADal Grande VGentile MKisslinger ALa Guardia DLiguori GLo Presti FPerna SPicciotto SOttaviano SSala CSigna A(2021)The Role of Metaphor in Serious Games Design: the BubbleMumble Case StudyGames and Learning Alliance10.1007/978-3-030-92182-8_19(198-207)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92182-8_19
Rowe EAsbell-Clarke JBardar EAlmeda MBaker RScruggs RGasca S(2020)Advancing Research in Game-Based Learning AssessmentAdvancing Educational Research With Emerging Technology10.4018/978-1-7998-1173-2.ch006(99-123)Online publication date: 2020
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-1173-2.ch006

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents