The five year evolution of a game programming course (original) (raw)
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Lessons from COSMOS: Four Years of Iteration on a Game Design Class
soe.ucsc.edu
In this paper, we describe a video game design and programming class offered as part of the California Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) program at University of California, Santa Cruz. The authors have co-taught this class for four years, and have had an opportunity to iteratively explore a number of approaches in teaching the class. The course has evolved a great deal over the last four years; this paper presents a post-mortem of the program so far, describing our different approaches, our successes and failures, insight into the game design process for students, and recommendations for future game design courses.
Using Game Development to Teach Programming
Handbook of Research on Immersive Digital Games in Educational Environments, 2019
One of the educational actions used to leverage the acquisition of practical and theoretical knowledge in the classroom is related to the “learn by practice” methodology in which the student goes from a mere spectator to an agent in his/her learning process. This methodology is being applied in the teaching of courses related to programming, fostering the development of digital games as a didactic practice. This chapter describes the digital games development experience in programming courses on the first year of computer graduation courses in a Brazilian private university. The study reveals the opinion of students and teachers on the application of game development in such courses, as well as the methodology applied to each one of them. The results obtained emphasize that the activity intensifies the learning of concepts inherent to programming, along with fostering motivation and commitment that is paramount in the building of their competencies and skills.
Game design based learning of programming
2019
We will present game-based learning and the use of game design as a method for teaching programming in primary and secondary schools in the paper. A lot of knowledge about game-based learning in general was collected in the last decade, but very few information and resources can be found on how to use game design as a method for teaching programming. We have made an extensive study of different approaches to game design-based learning with special emphasis on learning programming for novice programmers. The results will be used as a foundation for the development of methodology in the Eras-mus+ international project Coding for Girls. This project addresses open and innovative education and training embedded in the digital era by targeting programming skills that are high in demand in a technology driven society. The project also aims at addressing the gap between male and female participation in computer science education by introducing early methodological learning interventions that make computer programming attractive for girls and boys.
Game Development for Computer Science Education
Proceedings of the 2016 ITiCSE Working Group Reports, 2016
Games can be a valuable tool for enriching computer science education, since they can facilitate a number of conditions that promote learning: student motivation, active learning, adaptivity, collaboration, and simulation. Additionally, they provide the instructor the ability to collect learning metrics with relative ease. As part of 21st Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2016), the Game Development for Computer Science Education working group convened to examine the current role games play in computer science (CS) education, including where and how they fit into CS education. Based on reviews of literature, academic research, professional practice, and a comprehensive list of games for computing education, we present this working group report. This report provides a summary of existing digital games designed to enrich computing education, an index of where these games may fit into a teaching paradigm using the ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curricula 2013 [13], and a guide to developing digital games designed to teach knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to computer science.
IEEE Transactions on Education
This article presents a large-scale study which investigates students' reaction to game-based learning as part of programming courses. The study focuses on knowledge acquisition, learner experience, and game usability. Background: Despite the rapid growth of the information and communication technologies (ICTs) sector, the lack of engagement with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects and high dropout rates in computer science and engineering majors is linked directly to the large number of unfilled vacancies in the ICT employment market. To tackle one of the underlying causes for this crisis, (i.e., traditional teaching paradigms struggle to attract students to rather abstract and difficult STEM subjects such as programming), innovative technology-enhanced learning solutions are sought. Intended Outcomes: A set of serious games were proposed and designed to promote students' understanding of programming concepts, improve their confidence, stimulate their interest in STEM and increase engagement with the courses through vivid and appealing scenarios. Application Design: Targeting undergraduate and postgraduate students, the games focused on several key programming topics. They were designed to visualize the programming concepts in illustrative and entertaining scenarios. A comprehensive assessment methodology which includes surveys, observations, and interviews was employed to investigate the impact of the games. Findings: The results show that by using the games in the teaching and learning process all the students have benefited, although differently based on their location, educational backgrounds, and game played. The impact of detailed demographic aspects, such as participants' use of technology, their initial Manuscript
Use of Game Development in Computer Science and Software Engineering Education
2015
This chapter presents the results of a literature survey on the use of game development in software engineering (SE) and computer science (CS) education. Games and game development has been used in recent years to increase motivation, engagement and learning, and to promote doing career in software and computers. The authors of this chapter wanted to get a bird’s eye perspective on how game development has been used in the recent years to teach other things than just game development. The literature survey includes research articles from the period 2004 to 2012, and it investigates among other things in what context game development has being used, the subjects and topics taught through game development, and what tools and frameworks being used for game development to learn SE and CS. Further, this chapter includes a description of how game development was used in our software architecture course at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and the gained experiences from ...