Experimental Feedback on Prog&Play: A Serious Game for Programming Practice

This paper presents an experimental feedback on a serious game dedicated to strengthening programming skills. This serious game, called Prog&Play, is built on an open source real‐time strategy game. Its goal is to be compatible with different students, teachers and institutions. We based its evaluation on an iterative process that allows to implement the game and carry out experimentations in several contexts. Through this assessment, we define a framework which has been tested by third parties and we analyse both positive and negative points to improve the project. Evaluation is indeed beneficial and enables you to establish communication about the implemented practices.

[1]  Michael Zyda,et al.  From visual simulation to virtual reality to games , 2005, Computer.

[2]  David Ginat On Novice Loop Boundaries and Range Conceptions , 2004, Comput. Sci. Educ..

[3]  Erin W. Chambers,et al.  A case study of retention practices at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , 2008, SIGCSE '08.

[4]  Patrice Torguet,et al.  Towards a Serious Game to Help Students Learn Computer Programming , 2009, Int. J. Comput. Games Technol..

[5]  Frank L. Greitzer,et al.  Cognitive science implications for enhancing training effectiveness in a serious gaming context , 2007, JERC.

[6]  Mitchel Resnick,et al.  Scratch: A Sneak Preview , 2004 .

[7]  Daniel E. Stevenson,et al.  Developing real-world programming assignments for CS1 , 2006, ITICSE '06.

[8]  Stacy Marsella,et al.  Serious Games for Language Learning: How Much Game, How Much AI? , 2005, AIED.

[9]  Lawrence B. Holder,et al.  Enhancing computer science education with a wireless intelligent simulation environment , 2004, J. Comput. High. Educ..

[10]  Susan A. Yoon,et al.  Developing games and simulations for today and tomorrow’s tech savvy youth , 2005 .

[11]  Fu-Shing Sun,et al.  Teaching Design Patterns Through Computer Game Development , 2008, JERC.

[12]  A. Bandura Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control , 1997, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy.

[13]  John Maloney,et al.  Scratch: a sneak preview [education] , 2004, Proceedings. Second International Conference on Creating, Connecting and Collaborating through Computing, 2004..

[14]  Chee Siang Ang,et al.  Theories of learning: a computer game perspective , 2003, Fifth International Symposium on Multimedia Software Engineering, 2003. Proceedings..

[15]  L. Schauble,et al.  Design Experiments in Educational Research , 2003 .

[16]  P. Pintrich,et al.  Motivation in Education: Theory, Research, and Applications , 1995 .

[17]  Jeffrey Edgington,et al.  A games first approach to teaching introductory programming , 2007, SIGCSE.

[18]  P. Pintrich,et al.  Beyond Cold Conceptual Change: The Role of Motivational Beliefs and Classroom Contextual Factors in the Process of Conceptual Change , 1993 .

[19]  Woei-Kae Chen,et al.  Teaching Object-Oriented Programming Laboratory With Computer Game Programming , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Education.

[20]  Lon Smith,et al.  Weighted primary trait analysis for computer program evaluation , 2005 .

[21]  Rolland Viau La motivation en contexte scolaire , 1994 .