A Game Engine to Learn Computer Science Languages

Ángel Serrano-Laguna, Javier Torrente, Borja Manero,

Baltasar Fernández Manjón

balta@fdi.ucm.es@BaltaFM

1

The problem

• Increasing interest in providing Computer Science instruction to a wider sector of the population– Game-based learning approach

• Many approaches already– GameMaker– Alice– Microsoft’s Kodu– Scratch– …

• …but they are hard to scale, because they are intended– for specific audiences– for specific programming languages

2

Game design principles

1. Students must code in the game

2. Promote reflection, avoid time pressure

3. Separate input and game mechanics

4. Level structure

5. A clear goal is set up for each level

6. Use scores to promote competition between peers and to provide a sense of progress

3

If you prefer to play instead of the talk go directly to

http://gleaner.e-ucm.es/lostinspace/play/index.html

Engine architecture

4

1. Game core2. Set of actions and structures3. Interpreter4. Levels

Lost in Space

About the game...

• A basic game to acquiere familiriaty with XML documents– Learn the syntax– Understand nesting and attributes– Gain agility writing and reading XML documents

• Designed as a complementary activity in a Web Programming Course– For undergraduate computer science students

Understanding the game…

Goal

Main character

Power-ups (new syntax elements)

Write XML snippets here to move the main

character to the goal

Understanding the game

• 13 scenarios– Syntax elements are introduced progressively (through power-

ups)– Increasingly complex interactions / snippets– Later scenarios include complex sequencing and iteration

Examples Input Programs for the Game

9

Effect in game Java XML

Move ship 4 spaces ship.move(4); <move distance=”4”/>

Make ally shoot if(ship.getId().equals(“ally”){ship.shoot();}

<actions idref=”ally”><shoot/></actions>

Shoot 4 times for (int i = 0; i<4; i++){shoot();}

<actions repeat=”4”><shoot/></actions>

Case Study I

10

12

12.5

13

13.5

14

14.5

15

15.5

16

Played the game (Group A) Traditional lesson (Group B)

• Participants from Computer Science degree• 17 students played the game (Group A)• 14 students attended a lecture (Group B)

• Methods• Identical pre-test and post-test for both groups, from 0 to 20

• Results (knowledge increase)

Case Study I

• Students’ scores increased both after traditional instruction and game-based instruction

• Similar results• Average effect of instruction is not very high (13-14 %)

– Reduced exposure to instruction (<50 minutes)

• Students who played the game were more satisfied with the experience– The different engagement observed in the two groups may

suggest that overall Lost in Space was a better instructional approach, although it did not yield better results than traditional instruction in terms of knowledge acquisition

11

Case Study II

12

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Group A (Computer Science) Group C (Social sciences)

• To explore if the effects of using the game for instruction with a different student population

• Participants• 13 college students enrolled in a social sciences (Group C)

• Same pre-tests and post-tests• Results (knowledge increase):

Case Study II

• Lower starting point in knowledge for Group C• Similar increase as Group A• Test has 2 exercises: find errors in an XML documents

and write an XML document:– Group C only improved in first exercise of the test

13

Want to play?

http://bit.ly/LiS-XMLhttp://gleaner.e-ucm.es/lostinspace/play/index.html

14

Learning Analytics applied to this game

Ángel Serrano-Laguna, Baltasar Fernández-Manjón (2014): Applying learning analytics to simplify serious games deployment in the classroom. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) Page 872-877

Our current projects

RAGE H2020 ICT2014-21ª

Realising an Applied Gaming Eco-system