Abstract
Diverse learners from different backgrounds present both significant instructional design challenges and opportunities. Particularly in programming, most serious games that have been created to aid lecturers lack support for diversity. As a result, domain experts who may wish to adopt a Game Based Learning (GBL) approach lack diverse games that are relevant to their local contexts. This paper reports on the design considerations necessary to create diverse programming games for teaching recursion to different novice students. Interviews were conducted with 17 introductory programming (CS1) lecturers from Kenya and South Africa. This was followed by qualitative thematic content analysis. Findings were reviewed by a game expert to validate them from a games design perspective. Results suggest that student background, gender, and culture as well as other factors such as local context, game attributes, pedagogy and practical teaching aspects are core to creating diverse programming games targeting different learners in this generation.
Supported by the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering HPI, the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant numbers: 85470 and 88209) and University of Cape Town.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aedo Lopez, M., Vidal Duarte, E., Castro Gutierrez, E., Paz Valderrama, A.: Teaching abstraction, function and reuse in the first class of CS1: a lightbot experience. In: Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2016, pp. 256–257. ACM, New York (2016). https://doi.org/10.1145/2899415.2925505
Amineh, R.J., Asl, H.D.: Review of constructivism and social constructivism. J. Soc. Sci. Lit. Lang. 1(1), 9–16 (2015)
Anderson, R.: Thematic content analysis (TCA). Descriptive presentation of qualitative data (2007)
Anyango, J.T., Suleman, H.: Teaching programming in Kenya and South Africa: what is difficult and is it universal? In: Proceedings of the 18th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research, Koli Calling 2018, pp. 24:1–24:2. ACM, New York (2018). https://doi.org/10.1145/3279720.3279744
Ball, A.F.: Preparing teachers for diversity: lessons learned from the US and South Africa. Teach. Teach. Educ. 16(4), 491–509 (2000)
Barnes, T., Powell, E., Chaffin, A., Lipford, H.: Game2Learn: improving the motivation of CS1 students. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Game Development in Computer Science Education, GDCSE 2008, pp. 1–5. ACM, New York (2008). https://doi.org/10.1145/1463673.1463674
Barnes, T., Richter, H., Powell, E., Chaffin, A., Godwin, A.: Game2Learn: building CS1 learning games for retention. In: Proceedings of the 12th Annual SIGCSE Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2007, pp. 121–125. ACM, New York (2007). https://doi.org/10.1145/1268784.1268821
Battistella, P., von Wangenheim, C.G.: Games for teaching computing in higher education-a systematic review. IEEE Technol. Eng. Educ. J. 9(1), 8–30 (2016)
Bayliss, J.D.: Using games in introductory courses: tips from the trenches. In: Proceedings of the 40th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2009, pp. 337–341. ACM, New York (2009). https://doi.org/10.1145/1508865.1508989
Bruckman, A., et al.: “Georgia computes!” improving the computing education pipeline. ACM SIGCSE Bull. 41(1), 86–90 (2009)
Camp, T.: The incredible shrinking pipeline. Commun. ACM 40(10), 103–110 (1997)
Chaffin, A., Doran, K., Hicks, D., Barnes, T.: Experimental evaluation of teaching recursion in a video game. In: Proceedings of the 2009 ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Video Games, Sandbox 2009, pp. 79–86. ACM, New York (2009). https://doi.org/10.1145/1581073.1581086
Chetty, J., van der Westhuizen, D.: Towards a pedagogical design for teaching novice programmers: design-based research as an empirical determinant for success. In: Proceedings of the 15th Koli Calling Conference on Computing Education Research, Koli Calling 2015, pp. 5–12. ACM, New York (2015). https://doi.org/10.1145/2828959.2828976
Chorianopoulos, K., Giannakos, M.N., Chrisochoides, N.: Design principles for serious games in mathematics. In: Proceedings of the 18th Panhellenic Conference on Informatics, PCI 2014, pp. 1–5. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2014). https://doi.org/10.1145/2645791.2645843
Collain, M., Trytten, D.: You don’t have to be a white male that was learning how to program since he was five. In: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2019, pp. 968–974. ACM, New York (2019). https://doi.org/10.1145/3287324.3287383
Duarte, E.V., Pearce, J.L.: A cross-cultural review of lightbot for introducing functions and code reuse. J. Comput. Sci. Coll. 33(2), 100–105 (2017). http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3144645.3144660
Engelbrecht, P.: The implementation of inclusive education in South Africa after ten years of democracy. Eur. J. Psychol. Educ. 21(3), 253 (2006)
Green, M.C., Khalifa, A., Barros, G.A., Nealen, A., Togelius, J.: Generating levels that teach mechanics. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, p. 55. ACM (2018)
Guzdial, M., Soloway, E.: Teaching the Nintendo generation to program. Commun. ACM 45(4), 17–21 (2002)
Hadjerrouit, S.: A constructivist framework for integrating the java paradigm into the undergraduate curriculum. In: Proceedings of the 6th Annual Conference on the Teaching of Computing and the 3rd Annual Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education: Changing the Delivery of Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 1998, pp. 105–107. ACM, New York (1998). https://doi.org/10.1145/282991.283079
Horn, B., et al.: Design insights into the creation and evaluation of a computer science educational game. In: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education, SIGCSE 2016, pp. 576–581. ACM, New York (2016). https://doi.org/10.1145/2839509.2844656
Ibe, N.A., Howsmon, R., Penney, L., Granor, N., DeLyser, L.A., Wang, K.: Reflections of a diversity, equity, and inclusion working group based on data from a national CS education program. In: Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2018, pp. 711–716. ACM, New York (2018). https://doi.org/10.1145/3159450.3159594
Isbister, K., Flanagan, M., Hash, C.: Designing games for learning: insights from conversations with designers. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2010, pp. 2041–2044. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2010). https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753637
Johnson, C., et al.: Game development for computer science education. In: Proceedings of the 2016 ITiCSE Working Group Reports, pp. 23–44. ACM (2016)
Katz, J.: Teaching to Diversity: The Three-block Model of Universal Design for Learning. Portage & Main Press, Winnipeg (2012)
Kazimoglu, C., Kiernan, M., Bacon, L., Mackinnon, L.: A serious game for developing computational thinking and learning introductory computer programming. Procedia-Soc. Behav. Sci. 47, 1991–1999 (2012)
Khalifa, A., Perez-Liebana, D., Lucas, S.M., Togelius, J.: General video game level generation. In: Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 2016, pp. 253–259. ACM (2016)
Kirriemuir, J., McFarlane, A.: Literature review in games and learning (2004)
Lahtinen, E., Ala-Mutka, K., Järvinen, H.M.: A study of the difficulties of novice programmers. SIGCSE Bull. 37(3), 14–18 (2005)
Malliarakis, C., Satratzemi, M., Xinogalos, S.: Educational games for teaching computer programming. In: Karagiannidis, C., Politis, P., Karasavvidis, I. (eds.) Research on e-Learning and ICT in Education, pp. 87–98. Springer, New York (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6501-0_7
McCauley, R., Grissom, S., Fitzgerald, S., Murphy, L.: Teaching and learning recursive programming: a review of the research literature. Comput. Sci. Educ. 25(1), 37–66 (2015)
Miller, C.S., Settle, A., Lalor, J.: Learning object-oriented programming in python: towards an inventory of difficulties and testing pitfalls. In: Proceedings of the 16th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education, SIGITE 2015, pp. 59–64. ACM, New York, NY (2015). https://doi.org/10.1145/2808006.2808017
Mohamed, A.: Designing a CS1 programming course for a mixed-ability class. In: Proceedings of the Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education, WCCCE 2019, pp. 8:1–8:6. ACM, New York (2019). https://doi.org/10.1145/3314994.3325084
Monge, A.E., Fadjo, C.L., Quinn, B.A., Barker, L.J.: EngageCSEdu: engaging and retaining CS1 and CS2 students. ACM Inroads 6(1), 6–11 (2015)
National Science Foundation: Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering: 2013. Technical report, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economics Science (2013)
Papastergiou, M.: Digital game-based learning in high school computer science education: impact on educational effectiveness and student motivation. Comput. Educ. 52(1), 1–12 (2009)
Parberry, I., Kazemzadeh, M.B., Roden, T.: The art and science of game programming. In: Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2006, pp. 510–514. ACM, New York (2006). https://doi.org/10.1145/1121341.1121500
Prensky, M.: Digital game-based learning. Comput. Entertain. 1(1), 21 (2003)
Rankin, Y.A.: Diversity by design: female students’ perception of a Spanish language learning game. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2016, pp. 670–679. ACM, New York (2016). https://doi.org/10.1145/2851581.2851610
Richard, G.T.: Video games, gender, diversity, and learning as cultural practice: implications for equitable learning and computing participation through games. Educ. Technol., 36–43 (2017)
Robinson, M., Zinn, D.: Teacher preparation for diversity at three South African universities. J. Educ. 42(1), 61–81 (2007)
Schulte, C., Bennedsen, J.: What do teachers teach in introductory programming? In: Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Computing Education Research, ICER 2006, pp. 17–28. ACM, New York (2006). https://doi.org/10.1145/1151588.1151593
Spiel, K., et al.: “It started as a joke": on the design of idle games. In: Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2019, pp. 495–508. ACM, New York (2019). https://doi.org/10.1145/3311350.3347180
Corbin, J., Strauss, A.: Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Sage, Thousand Oaks (1998)
Tang, S., Hanneghan, M.: A model-driven framework to support development of serious games for game-based learning. In: Developments in E-systems Engineering (DESE 2010), pp. 95–100. IEEE (2010)
Tessler, J., Beth, B., Lin, C.: Using cargo-bot to provide contextualized learning of recursion. In: Proceedings of the Ninth Annual International ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research, ICER 2013, pp. 161–168. ACM, New York (2013). https://doi.org/10.1145/2493394.2493411
Thevathayan, C., Hamilton, M.: Supporting diverse novice programming cohorts through flexible and incremental visual constructivist pathways. In: Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2015, pp. 296–301. ACM, New York (2015). https://doi.org/10.1145/2729094.2742609
Torrente, J., del Blanco, A., Cañizal, G., Moreno-Ger, P., Fernández-Manjón, B.: \(<\)e-Adventure3D\(>\): an open source authoring environment for 3D adventure games in education. In: Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, ACE 2008, pp. 191–194. ACM, New York (2008). https://doi.org/10.1145/1501750.1501795
Torrente, J., Blanco, A., Marchiori, E., Moreno Ger, P., Fernández-Manjón, B.: \(<\)e-Adventure\(>\): introducing educational games in the learning process, pp. 1121 – 1126, May 2010. https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2010.5493056
Walton, E., Nel, N., Hugo, H., Muller, H.: The extent and practice of inclusion in independent schools in South Africa. S. Afr. J. Educ. 29(1), 105–126 (2009)
Willson, R.: Analysing qualitative data: you asked them, now what to do with what they said. In: Proceedings of the 2019 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval, CHIIR 2019, pp. 385–387. ACM, New York (2019). https://doi.org/10.1145/3295750.3298964
Acknowledgements
This research was partially funded by the Hasso Plattner Institute, the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (Grant numbers: 85470 and 88209) and University of Cape Town. The authors acknowledge that opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are that of the authors, and that the NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Anyango, J.T., Suleman, H. (2021). Designing Programming Games for Diversity in Teaching Introductory Programming. In: Wells, G., Nxozi, M., Tait, B. (eds) ICT Education. SACLA 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1518. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92858-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92858-2_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-92857-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-92858-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)