Christos Malliarakis

Towards a new massive multiplayer online role playing game for introductory programming

Successful computer programming education is facing significant problems even nowadays for both students and teachers. To this end, the specificities of those difficulties and the corresponding causes continue to be an ongoing topic of research. According to relevant case studies, these relate to the complex concepts of computer programming as well as the lack of motivation by students to achieve the given goals. On the other hand, the emerging field of Games Based Learning is gradually delivering games that are applied in a series of educational contexts. In this paper, we aim to initially investigate the educational games developed for and used in the computer programming domain and review to which level they address the aforementioned difficulties. Related work includes a number of games that have been developed towards this goal. However, even though they seem promising examples, they lack features that would allow them to successfully underpin computer programming learning by facing the majority of the identified problems. To this end, we propose a new, advanced Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that includes the facilitating and positive features identified in existing solutions and incorporates missing elements that will bring forth a new generation of educational games for introductory computer programming.

CMX: The Effects of an Educational MMORPG on Learning and Teaching Computer Programming

Computer programming has for decades posed several difficulties for students of all educational levels. A number of teaching approaches have been proposed over the years but none seems to fulfil the needs of students nowadays. Students use computers mainly for playing games and the Internet and as quite a few researchers state this aspect of computers should be taken into account in the way we educate them. Towards this direction, this paper aims to examine the effects of using an educational Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) on teaching and learning computer programming. The educational features of an MMORPG called CMX are presented along with a design framework that was devised taking into account previous work in designing educational games. The effects of CMX on teaching and learning computer programming are assessed through a study with first-year undergraduate students. Seventy six students used CMX over a period of five weeks for learning various procedural programming concepts. Students evaluated various aspects of CMX by filling in a questionnaire that was based on an evaluation framework, which was devised in accordance with the design framework of CMX. Moreover, the results of a midterm exam that took place prior to using CMX and students’ accomplishments in the context of CMX were recorded and analyzed. The results show that the majority of the students was entertained by playing the game while learning, and felt motivated to continue based on the games scenario due to the variety of activities included. In regards to the students’ performance, a pre-test and a post-test were carried out in the experimental group, i.e., the participants of this study, and the control group, i.e., students of the course that continued to get taught the same concepts and performed the same assignments as the experimental group, but traditionally. The pre-test and post-test analysis of the performance results for both groups showed that the majority of the students in the experimental group increased their performance in computer programming. Furthermore, students stated they had a positive attitude in regards to re-using CMX in the future in order to learn additional programming concepts. The positive results of this study pave the way for CMX being used in the classroom and expanding the games functionalities that will further increase students’ performance and support teachers in delivering the required knowledge. Moreover, the work reported in this paper offers game designers and teachers methodological and empirical results for game-based learning in such a difficult domain as is computer programming. What is more, the design and evaluation frameworks presented are general enough that they can be easily adjusted and/or extended for designing and assessing educational games in other domains as well.

Microworlds, games, animations, mobile apps, puzzle editors and more: What is important for an introductory programming environment?

Teaching and learning programming constitutes a challenge. Although several teaching approaches and programming tools have been proposed, it seems that they have limited impact on classroom practice. This article investigates students’ perceptions on five educational programming environments that are widely used and the features that any introductory programming environment should have. The environments investigated are: BlueJ; objectKarel; Scratch; Alice; and MIT App inventor. These environments were studied and used by experienced undergraduate students of Informatics in the context of a fourth year course. The main features of the environments and the way of presenting them to students, as well as the assignments in the context of the course are presented, in order to help the reader realize what experience was gained by the students that evaluated the environments. Based on a questionnaire filled in by students interesting conclusions were drawn. Students identified the main features of the environments and evaluated them positively, although problems were identified. An introductory programming environment should engage students through the development of programs connected to their interests, such as games and mobile apps. Moreover, an ideal introductory programming environment should provide a simple and user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) that supports visualization of objects and classes, includes a puzzle-like editor for program development, reports simple and understandable error messages in natural language, and finally the ability to execute the program in a step by step manner. Although no single environment fulfils all these features, it seems that the most successful environment is Scratch.

Educational Games for Teaching Computer Programming

Teaching and learning computer programming presents teachers and students respectively with many challenges, especially when taught with the “traditional” approach. Several alternative teaching approaches were proposed the previous years, but they seem not to fulfil successfully the needs of the twenty-first century students. Students nowadays are raised in a digital world and they learn and react differently. Students start to use computers before they first attend formal education, while computer games have become a part of their everyday life. A growing number of teachers/researchers propose the incorporation of educational games (or serious games) in the teaching of computer programming with the aim of reinforcing instinctive motivation through challenging students, piquing their curiosity and providing them with a sense of control and imagination. This paper aims to review the functionalities that should be supported by educational games in general and the extent to which these functionalities are supported by educational games for computer programming. The comparative analysis of several educational games for programming demonstrates that the majority of games seem well established, but they teach fairly simple concepts and their actual trials and validations are limited. The paper also discusses the implications of our work for the development of educational games that can fully support the identified features and teach complex programming elements.

Microworlds, Games and Collaboration: three effective approaches to support novices in learning programming

Specially designed programming environments have been used for decades to support the novice programmers learning programming. In this paper, we present various forms of Educational Technology that have guided the design of educational programming environments the last two decades. The design and aspirations of three distinct programming environments developed at the University of Macedonia are presented. These include a Programming Microworld, an Educational Game and a Distributed Pair Programming system. The potential benefits of the different features of the three environments are presented along with results from their evaluation. Conclusions are drawn regarding the technologies incorporated in these different programming environments. Specifically, emphasis is given on technologies and features that seem to be important for motivating and engaging students in learning programming and should be taken into account by researchers designing new educational programming environments.

Game-Based Technologies in Teaching Programming in Higher Education: Theory and Practices

BACKGROUND: The trend of new emerging technologies has impact upon teaching and learning in Higher Education Institutions. Consequently, emphasis is placed on digital pedagogy and its support to knowledge creation. Further, it seems to be essential to understand the learning theories and their contribution to learning in HEIs within this digital age. METHODS: One of the most powerful technologies is the digital game –based technology. Knowing its rapid development, this research emphasizes the importance of programming and game construction as well as the principles of digital pedagogy, required to be embedded when designing such technologies. Today’s students have grown up in a digital and internet connected world where playing computer games is a common spare time activity. Could the energy, enthusiasm and practice generated by computer games be used in programming education? RESULTS: This article describes and discusses the design and learning outcomes of some programming courses using the concept of learning to program by game construction. In a case study the course analyses have been combined with two literature reviews on Game Based Learning and Digital Pedagogy. CONCLUSION: Findings show that the idea of students constructing knowledge from their interactions with the environment has support in the modern pedagogy that draws on the theories by Piaget and Vygotsky. Practical applications of these concepts have had successful outcomes and increased student motivation in the two described and analyzed programming courses.

Creativity-Based Learning versus Game-Based Learning

One of the most challenging trends in modern education is creativitybased learning. Creativity in learning has been recognized, during the last part of the 20th century and early 21st, to be increasingly significant as a skill to be covered in the formal education. Digital game-based learning appears to deliver the most effective way of providing creativity in digital learning environments. The paper considers a modern approach of using digital game-based technologies for creative teaching and learning. Firstly, the meaning of “digital learning environment” and its relation with creative digital learning is discussed. Then, several applications of using game-based learning techniques for improving creative digital learning are presented. Practical solutions for problems of creative learning and creative teaching are shown. Each case-study is followed by explanation of techniques which could be used for the development of digital learning environments implementing creativity-based learning principles.