Ashok R. Basawapatna

Scalable Game Design: A Strategy to Bring Systemic Computer Science Education to Schools through Game Design and Simulation Creation

An educated citizenry that participates in and contributes to science technology engineering and mathematics innovation in the 21st century will require broad literacy and skills in computer science (CS). School systems will need to give increased attention to opportunities for students to engage in computational thinking and ways to promote a deeper understanding of how technologies and software are used as design tools. However, K-12 students in the United States are facing a broken pipeline for CS education. In response to this problem, we have developed the Scalable Game Design curriculum based on a strategy to integrate CS education into the regular school curriculum. This strategy includes opportunities for students to design and program games and science technology engineering and mathematics simulations. An approach called Computational Thinking Pattern Analysis has been developed to measure and correlate computational thinking skills relevant to game design and simulations. Results from a study with more than 10,000 students demonstrate rapid adoption of this curriculum by teachers from multiple disciplines, high student motivation, high levels of participation by women, and interest regardless of demographic background.

Towards the Automatic Recognition of Computational Thinking for Adaptive Visual Language Learning

Visual programming languages can be used to make computer science more accessible to a broad range of students. The evaluative focus of current research in the area of visual languages for educational purposes primarily aims to better understand motivational benefits as compared to traditional programming languages. Often these visual languages claim to teach students computational thinking concepts; however, although the evaluations show that students may exhibit more enthusiasm, it is not always clear what computational thinking concepts students have actually learned. In this paper we attempt to develop a visual semantic evaluation tool for student-created games and simulations that goes towards depicting the computational thinking concepts implemented by the students. Through semantically analyzing a given student’s created projects over time, this visual evaluation tool, called the Computational Thinking Pattern (CTP) graph, can possibly indicate the existence of computational thinking transfer from games to science simulations.

Using scalable game design to teach computer science from middle school to graduate school

A variety of approaches exist to teach computer science concepts to students from K-12 to graduate school. One such approach involves using the mass appeal of game design and creation to introduce students to programming and computational thinking. Specifically, Scalable Game Design enables students with varying levels of expertise to learn important concepts relative to their experience. This paper presents our observations using Scalable Game Design over multiple years to teach middle school students, college level students, graduate students, and even middle school teachers fundamental to complex computer science and education concepts. Results indicate that Scalable Game Design appeals broadly to students, regardless of background, and is a powerful teaching tool in getting students of all ages exposed and interested in computer science. Furthermore, it is observed that many student projects exhibit transfer enabling their games to explain complex ideas, from all disciplines, to the general public.

The zones of proximal flow: guiding students through a space of computational thinking skills and challenges

This paper presents a novel pedagogical framework, entitled the Zones of Proximal Flow, which integrates Vygotskys Zone of Proximal Development theory with Csikszentmihalyis ideas about Flow. Flow focuses on the individual-- an individual is in Flow when challenges are balanced with skills. The Zone of Proximal Development, on the other hand, brings in a social learning aspect focusing on a students ability to learn concepts with external support. From our research experiences bringing game and simulation design into middle school classrooms, we attempt to provide students with appropriate challenges using a project-first based approach that aims to keep students in Flow. The project-first approach employs inquiry based scaffolding to guide students, with appropriate support by their teachers, through Vygotskys Zone of Proximal Development, back in to Csikszentmihalyis state of Flow for an ideal learning experience. We call this space the Zones of Proximal Flow. Data indicate that the Zones of Proximal Flow approach works, keeping classrooms engaged in the act of game design and enabling students to advance to more complex program creations.

The simulation creation toolkit: an initial exploration into making programming accessible while preserving computational thinking

Computational thinking aims to outline fundamental skills from computer science that everyone should learn. These skills include problem formulation, logically organizing data, automating solutions through algorithmic thinking, and representing data through abstraction. One aim of the NSF is to integrate these and other computational thinking concepts into the classroom. This paper introduces a tool called the Simulation Creation Toolkit wherein users apply high-level agent interactions called Computational Thinking Patterns (CTPs) to create simulations. Programming at the Computational Thinking Pattern level allows users to directly create agent interactions in a simulation by employing generic icons acting out a scientific phenomenon they are trying to represent. The Simulation Creation Toolkit aims to preserve the computational thinking benefits of simulation creation while enabling higher-level implementation of agent behaviors. Initial study data collected from sixth grade students with no prior programming experience indicates that students can work the mechanics necessary to create simulations in the classroom environment using the Simulation Creation Toolkit.

Real Time Assessment of Computational Thinking

This paper suggests a Cyberlearning tool based on a highly innovative assessment methodology that helps teachers with computer science education. Currently, there is a strong push to integrate aspects of programming and coding into the classroom environment. However, few if any tools exist that enable real-time formative assessment of in-class programming tasks. The proposed REACT (Real Time Evaluation and Assessment of Computational Thinking) system is a first step toward allowing teachers to see which high-level concepts students have mastered and which ones they are struggling with as students code in real time. REACT supports and facilitates the teaching of 21st century computing skills such as computational thinking [1] in the classroom environment.

Piloting Computer Science Education Week in Mexico

Computer Science Education Week activities, featuring online? programming tools embedded with tutorials, report large participation numbers. However, to truly broaden participation, activities need to be made accessible in international contexts. In 2014, Tecnológico de Monterrey and Instituto de Innovación y Transferencia de Tecnología de Nuevo León, modified the Scalable Game Design CS Ed Week activity to include a Mexican feasibility pilot study. The goal of the pilot was to broaden participation in Computer Science in Mexico by creating interest and demand in further activities, including launching of 2015 Mexico CS Ed Week. This paper reviews the initial results of this 2014 pilot, including the discussion of the unique challenges faced in this context, and examines efforts to make this activity more accessible and successful. In addition to pilot data highlighting future activity improvements, initial retention results show that despite challenges, Mexican students were able to effectively use the modified activity to create games on par with U.S. students.

Computational thinking tools

Computational Thinking is an essential skill for all students in the 21st Century. A fundamental question is how can we create computer affordances to empower novice teachers and students, in a variety of STEM and art disciplines, to think computationally while avoiding difficult overhead emerging from traditional coding? Over the last 20 years we have iteratively developed tools that aim to support computational thinking. As these tools evolved a philosophy emerged to support Computational Thinking by joining human abilities with computer affordances. Chief among these findings is that supporting Computational Thinking is much more than making coding accessible. Computational Thinking Tools aim to minimize coding overhead by supporting users through three fundamental stages of the Computational Thinking development cycle: problem formulation, solution expression, and solution execution/evaluation.

Closing The Cyberlearning Loop: Enabling Teachers To Formatively Assess Student Programming Projects

Teachers are increasingly integrating game design and simulation creation projects as part of their classroom curricula. These projects have many benefits including motivating students in STEM activities and exposing students to computational thinking - a key part of upcoming science standards. However, barriers still exist to project-based computer science in a lab environment. One major issue is that, as students are creating their projects, it is extremely difficult for teachers to know how every student is progressing through a given activity and how to keep every student engaged. This paper introduces a Cyberlearning system entitled REACT (Real-Time Evaluation and Assessment of Computational Thinking) that is an initial step towards giving teachers quickly discernible real-time data corresponding to each student project. REACT provides teachers with a sortable dashboard, consisting of data from each student, that shows the characters students created and used to populate their game or simulation world as well as the semantic meaning behind what students have programmed. A feasibility test with four middle school classrooms shows that REACT helps teachers formatively assess students and provide targeted instruction to struggling individuals. Furthermore, teachers showed excitement at the summative and student self-assessment capabilities of REACT, and every teacher independently stated they would use the REACT system in subsequent end-user programming units.

Employing Retention of Flow to Improve Online Tutorials

Online CS Ed Week and Hour of Code activities attempt to motivate hundreds of millions of student participants across the world in computer science each year. A key goal of these endeavors is long-term student engagement. However, if the activity experience is bad, it could have effects adverse to the stated goal. Thus, it is imperative upon designers to actively improve the online activity ensuring the maximum numbers of students are retained throughout the exercise. We present a simple proof of concept method outlining a means for Computer Science Education Week and Hour of Code online activities to identify and improve hazardous points wherein students tend to drop out. This is achieved by finding so called flow stoppers in activity retention that diverge from an ideal theoretical Markov chain model, and scaffolding the activity at that point to better support participants. Initial data presented indicates that even minor changes can have a significant effect on keeping a greater number of students engaged.