Designing a system for teaching DFA to kids

Guided By Dr. Viraj Kumar

Problem Definition

● A research project, aimed at

○ To answer the question : “Can kids understand something as complex as DFAs if presented via games?”

○ Designing intuitive and interactive system- a game, to

teach the concepts of relatively complex topic -

‘Construction of DFA (Deterministic Finite Automata)’ to kids

Why a game ?

● Proven as an effective model for teaching and learning 1,2,3

● Some examples :○ Foldit - University of Washington○ DragonBox Algebra - WeWantToKnow AS○ HCG Project - Lumosity○ Block by block project ○ Smart classes○ and lots of various TV, mobile and online applications

Designing games for kids

● Minimum physical effort from users○ I.e., reducing number of clicks, usage of gestures etc

● Incorporating everyday objects into the game design○ cupcakes, gods, monsters, pipes

● Interactive tutorial● Incentive for solving the puzzle using best available solution

○ stars based pointing system● Simple UI design● Concealing the fact that we are trying to teach them something !

Yes ! This is ours !

Demo !

● How we did it ?● Age group : 9 - 13● Levels design

○ Level 1 : DFA for binary strings containing at least one ‘0’○ Level 2 : DFA for binary odd number strings○ Level 3 : DFA for binary strings starting with ‘1’ and ending with ‘0’○ Level 4 : DFA for binary strings divisible by 4

● Local data collection server○ id, age, level difficulty, time taken, number of animations played, number

of tests taken, number of slots used, number of pipes used, number of pipes cancelled and number of touches

Beta testing

Results and inferences

● The time taken to complete any of 4 levels is in the range of

2 – 10 minutes

● The time taken for completion

of levels decreases as the user

advances from level 1 to level 3

even though the difficulty

increases, indicates the

learning activity of the user.

Results and inferences

● As the user progresses from level 1 to level 4 the number of animations played per unit time decreases whereas number of test taken increases, indicating the user is understanding how a DFA works as he progresses through the levels

Hurdles jumped...

● Evolving requirements● Steep learning curve● Boon and banes of Unity3D● Requirement of complex algorithms for some features● Integration of modules● Coordination of parallel changes

Future is exciting !

We are not done yet !

● Enhancement of user experience● Global release across multiple platforms● Publishing the results !

Sources

1.Algorithm discovery by protein folding game players"</b> with Firas Khatib, Seth Cooper, Michael D. Tyka, Kefan Xu, Ilya Makedon, David Baker, and Foldit Players in <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 108 no. 47 18949-18953 (2011)

2.Teaching and Learning Programming and Software Engineering via Interactive Gaming, ICSE 2013 SEE Track, Nikolai Tillmann; Jonathan De Halleux; Tao Xie; Sumit Gulwani; Judith Bishop

3 . Haystead, M. W., & Marzano, R. J. (2009). Meta-Analytic Synthesis of Studies Conducted at Marzano Research Laboratory on Instructional Strategies. Englewood, CO: Marzano Research Laboratory

Thank You !

Raghavendra R MVinod Kumar L