Serious games as didactic toolfor teaching programing

Jože Rugelj Matej Zapušek, Irena Lancovska ŠerbecUniversity of LjubljanaFaculty of EducationChair of Didactics of Computer Science

Games can provide motivation for learning, thus

increasing the chance that the desired learning outcomes will be achieved.

Motivation is needed by students to focus attention, but this is not enough. What makes computer game educational?

They must have well defined learning goals and have to promote development of important strategies and skills to increase cognitive and intellectual abilities of learners.

Important elements contributing to educational values of games are sensual stimuli, fantasy, challenge and curiosity (desire to know or learn).

A lot of educational computer games designed according to

behavioristic theory of learning: tutorials, which are basically forms of programmed instruction. one correct answer, immediate response positive response (happy sound, positive character reaction that

stimulate positive emotions), instance of action-reaction pair enforced.

with wrong answer the connection has to be weaken and reaction is provided in a form of negative stimuli.

Trivia games, quizzes, point and click games…all of them have drill and practice concept build in a very core of the game design and are broadly used in game based learning.

Constructivist learning emphasizes discovery and

inquiry learning arguing that students should be placed in a model of abstracted reality (modeled within computer game) where they construct their own knowledge.

Serious games can provide support for knowledge construction rather than declaring the knowledge in behavioristic fashion.

Instructional content can be blurred within a game. Player is expected to elicit desirable behaviours based

on emotional and cognitive reactions that result from interaction with a game.

Seven pedagogical goals for constructivist game design:

1. to provide an experience with the knowledge-construction process

2. to provide experiences encouraging appreciation of multiple perspectives

3. to embed learning in realistic and relevant contexts4. to encourage ownership in the learning process5. to embed learning in social experience6. to encourage the use of multiple modes of representation7. to encourage self-awareness of the knowledge

construction process

Students play the game and have fun, forgetting about

the “learning” part of the experience (even though they are constantly presented with new concepts which they have to adapt in order to be successful in a game.)

Students need motivation to focus on what needs to be learned but for any quality learning to occur this is not enough.

Features of game for effective learning Motivation

games motivating for players, important to understand the sources of motivation to provide a foundation for learning.

The role of failurethe price of failure is lowered, seen as a way to learn the underlying pattern; these features of failure in games allow players to take risks that might be too costly.

Competition and collaborationgamers enjoy competition with other players in games, but may not see competition as pleasurable and motivating in school; competition is seen by gamers as social, as much about gaming as winning and losing.

Interactivity

player doesn't just passively consume knowledge but has control over content

Customisationbased on learning styles and providing multiple routes to success

Strong identitiesgames offer players identities that trigger a deep investment on the part of the player and which are clearly associated with the functions, skills and goals one has to carry out in the virtual world.

Well-sequenced problemsin connectionist approaches to learning, it is argued that sequencing is crucial for effective learning in complex domains

A pleasant level of frustration

adjusting challenges in such a way that a range of players can experience the game as challenging but do-able

A cycle of expertiserepeated cycles of extended practice and tests of mastery

‘Deep’ and ‘fair’game must be challenging but set up in a way that leads to success; i.e. gameplay elements should be initially simple and easy to learn and become more complex the more the player comes to master them.

Learning programming Programming is difficult to learn (Mendes&Gomes, 2007) because:

teaching is not personalized, teachers’ strategies don’t support all students’ learning

styles, the teaching of dynamic concepts through static

materials, teachers are more concentrated on teaching a

programming language and its syntactic details, students use incorrect study methods, students don’t work hard enough to acquire

programming competences,

students don’t know how to solve problems, many students don’t have enough mathematical and

logical knowledge, students lack specific programming expertise, programming demands a high level of abstraction, programming learning requires skills like abstraction,

generalization, transfer and critical thinking, programming languages have a very complex syntax, students don’t have motivation, students have to learn programming in a difficult

period of their life.

Difficult concepts in programmingLahtinen, Ala-Mutka, Järvinen, 2007

Spremenljivke

Zanke

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Rekurzija

Kazalci, ref-erence

Strukturni podatkovni

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Difficult concepts in programingMilne in Rowe , 2002

Operatorji

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Pogojni stavki

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Nizi

Deklaracije spremenljivk∕f...

Prenos po vrednosti∕refer...

Klici funkcij

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Druge podatkovne struk...

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Project SEGAN (LLP)

SEGAN - Community of Practice about Serious Games

It produces reports on the design, development, and evaluation of Serious Games and their use in specific contexts.

Network supported by virtual tools and face to face events. SEGAN results also include:

development of a repository with products and projects relatedto SeriousGames

setting up of small-scale, local events on the design and development of SeriousGames

setting up of a series of annual European conferences and SummerSchools

http://www.facebook.com/groups/segan

Serious games student projects

Design of serious games is suitable for teacher education. Students at the Faculty of Education, UL, design and

implement serious games as a part of their study activities. The profile of graduates from “CS in education” Different learning goals for students:

analysis of all crucial elements, identification of learning goals by teachers / curriculum, definition of a didactical approach, specification technical requirements, implementation, testing and evaluation.

16SEGAN project

Serious games were designed and implemented by:

graduates as diploma work by groups of four undergraduate students as project

activity in a course Use of ICT in educationin the 4th year of CS teachers study program

The results of project work are twofold: students summarize interdisciplinary knowledge at the

end of their study games, produced in this process, are excellent didactic

material for pupils

SEGAN project 17

Web portal for serious games at FE UL

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hrast.pef.uni-lj.si/igre

Design process

Specification of “didactical problem” Analysis phase

curriculum, time, resources, technology, … Design

content, “story”, graphical, feedback, Implementation Testing and evaluation

SEGAN project 19

World of Variables Diploma thesis The goal of the game is to organize the logistics for delivery

of goods to some planets in the universe. Learning goals:

variables (types, declarations,…) assignments

Target audience: primary school Semantic model, independent

of syntax Understanding of concepts

20SEGAN project

Learning goals Pupil after playing a game

understands the idea of variable, knows variable has a name, is aquainted with with types of variables, is aware of the fact that different types are not compatible, knows that different types require different amount of memory, is familiar with assignement statements, is aware of meaning of both “sides” of assignment, knows what is the value of variable after assignment, can predict the values of variables after executing part of a

program (with several assignements).

Game 1: Cleaning up the mess in the lab

Game 2: Carriers

Game 3: Exam for raw material carriers

New didactic game: functions

Conclusions Game can be very powerful instructional

technology. Its use can be justified by all relevant learning

theories. But it can only be efficient, when it is properly

integrated into learning / teaching Very challenging topic in computer science

teacher education!