Developing Game-Like Instructional Modules to Enhance Student Learning in Lower Level Core
Computer Science Courses
Jinghua Zhang
Mustafa Atay
Rebecca Caldwell
Department of Computer Science
Winston-Salem State University
Elva J. Jones
Introduction
Statistics have shown that fewer African Americans are pursuing Computer
Science (CS) degrees relative to their proportion of the overall population
and among those who do major in CS very few are employed as
programmers. Struggling with the lower level core CS courses is the main
barrier preventing students from declaring CS major and retaining
students in the program. In this poster, we present our project of
developing game-like instructional modules to enhance student learning in
those gatekeeper courses namely Computer Programming I, Computer
Programming II and Data Structures. The project involves implementing
three components as shown in Fig. 1: Education, Assessment and
Dissemination. The education component includes developing game-like
instructional modules for those three courses, which will allow students to
learn the difficult concepts in a gaming context. The assessment
component includes establishing an advisory board for the project and
implementing the evaluation plan. The advisory board, which consists of
experienced CS faculty, education faculty and professionals from the
game industry, assists in project development and the evaluation process.
The dissemination component includes disseminating results through
national conferences, outreach programs, computer science HBCU
consortiums, publications and an HBCU faculty workshop. Several
modules have been developed and evaluated in the computer
programming / Data Structures classes at Winston-Salem State University
(WSSU). Initial assessment results show that game-like instructional
modules had a positive impact on student learning.
Several course modules have been developed by the CS game development
group at WSSU and used in the classroom. These modules were developed
using GameMaker.
•
Iterative Dungeon: This module was designed to help students visualize
the for loop. Fig. 3 shows the visualization steps of a nested for loop.
•
Garden Gnomes: This module was designed to help students visualize
the process of iterating through an array using for loops. Fig. 4 shows
how to access the elements in 2D arrays.
•
•
Recursion: This module was designed to help students learn and practice
how to use recursion to find the numbers in the Fibonacci sequence and
how to calculate the Factorial of a natural number using recursion step by
step in the game. Fig. 5 shows screenshots of the game.
Linked List: This module was designed to help student learn and practice
the basic operations (Inserting a new node, Inserting a new node to a
specified position on the list, deleting a node and searching for a node) on
Linked List in a fun game. Fig. 6 shows screenshots of the game.
Figure 3.Iterative Dungeon: Visualizing a nested for loop execution.
Figure 6. Linked List
Evaluation
The primary objectives of the evaluation plan are to measure the
effect of the game-like instructional modules on student learning in
lower-level core CS courses and to determine the quality and
effectiveness of this project in regards to enhancing computer
science education. Surveys have been developed for each module
based on a comprehensive review of the literature addressing issues
on learning. Respondents were asked to comment on the course
modules with respect to content, techniques and effectiveness. The
pre-test and post-test were developed and distributed for each
targeted concept. The feedback were reviewed by the advisory
board, faculty and students. The instructional modules will be
revised. Revisions to the surveys, pre-test and post-test will be made
as needed.
All the modules have been used in Computer Programming or Data
Structures classes since Fall 2011. Students took the pre-test,
played the game and then took the post-test and the survey. The
pre-test and post-test were very similar. The test results were
compared to assess learning gains. The survey and student
feedback were examined as well.
Student Comments
• “The game was very enjoyable. I did not even feel like I was doing
work. It made learning easier.”
• “The game was fun and improved my skills.”
• “I learned more about loops and I can interact with what I’m
doing. It gave me a visual understanding. ”
• “Thank you for this experience. It really has me excited to become
a video game programmer. I learned a good amount from this
game.”
Figure1: Project Components.
Project Implementation
Figure 4. Accessing the elements in 2D arrays
The project team identifies topics that our students struggle with most in the
lower level core CS courses and develops game-like instructional modules
to enhance students’ understanding of the difficult concepts. Each game-like
instructional module will follow a similar implementation process as shown
in the Fig. 2.
Start
Finish
Brainstorm the
game ideas for the
targeted topic
Produce the
storyboard for
the game
Refine the module based
on student feedback
Implement
the prototype
Use the module in
the classroom
Several modules have been developed and used in the Computer
Programming / Data Structures classes. The evaluation results were
promising and the feedback from students was very positive. These
modules will be refined to incorporate feedback from the students
and the advisory board. The evaluation method will be revised to
get more accurate assessment of learning gains. The modules are
available through our project website (http://compsci.wssu.edu/tip/)
for instructors and students at other institutions.
Present the
prototype to the
advisory board
Acknowledgement
Refine the prototype
and finalize the game
Figure 2. a Game-like Instructional Module Implementation Process.
Conclusion and Future Work
Figure 5. Recursion
This work was supported by NSF HRD-1137548. Many thanks go to
Computer Science Game Development Group at WSSU for their
contributions to this project.