research-article

Using serious games in computer science education

Author:

Lasse HakulinenAuthors Info & Claims

Koli Calling '11: Proceedings of the 11th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

Pages 83 - 88

https://doi.org/10.1145/2094131.2094147

Published: 17 November 2011 Publication History

Get Access

Abstract

Games are generally considered to be motivating and engaging and people spend a lot of time playing recreational games. Serious games can be used in Computer Science (CS) education to offer a different type of method to learn and discuss relevant topics.

This paper presents a pilot study of using serious games at a Data Structures and Algorithms course. The games that were used were either card games or they were played on a blackboard. The results of the pilot study seem promising and we will use the games also in next year's course. In addition, this paper raises discussion about using serious games in CS education. The main points of discussion are, how serious games can be used efficiently and how to evaluate the effects of using games?

References

[1]

T. Bell, I. Witten, and M. Fellows. Computer Science Unplugged: Off-line Activities and Games for All Ages. Citeseer, 1998.

Google Scholar

[2]

T. M. Connolly, M. Stansfield, and T. Hainey. An application of games-based learning within software engineering. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(3):416--428, 2007.

Crossref

Google Scholar

[3]

T. Hainey, T. M. Connolly, M. Stansfield, and E. A. Boyle. Evaluation of a game to teach requirements collection and analysis in software engineering at tertiary education level. Computers & Education, 56(1):21--35, 2011. Serious Games.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[4]

L. Hamey. Teaching secure communication protocols using a game representation. In Proceedings of the fifth Australasian conference on Computing education, pages 187--196. Citeseer, 2003.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[5]

R. Hays. The effectiveness of instructional games: A literature review and discussion. Technical report, DTIC Document, 2005.

Google Scholar

[6]

D. L. Ines and G. Abdelkader. An early evaluation method for social presence in serious game. In J. A. M. Cordeiro, B. Shishkov, A. Verbraeck, and M. Helfert, editors, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computer Supported Education, volume 1, pages 94--101. INSTICC Press, 2010.

Google Scholar

[7]

J. Kirriemuir and A. McFarlane. Literature review in games and learning. Future Lab Series Report, 8, 2004.

Google Scholar

[8]

D. R. Michael and S. L. Chen. Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform. Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade, 2005.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[9]

T. L. Naps, G. Rößling, V. Almstrum, W. Dann, R. Fleischer, C. Hundhausen, A. Korhonen, L. Malmi, M. McNally, S. Rodger, and J. A. Velázquez-Iturbide. Exploring the role of visualization and engagement in computer science education. In Working group reports from ITiCSE on Innovation and technology in computer science education, ITiCSE-WGR '02, pages 131--152, New York, NY, USA, 2002. ACM.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[10]

B. Parhami. A puzzle-based seminar for computer engineering freshmen. Computer Science Education, 18(4):261--277, 2008.

Crossref

Google Scholar

[11]

S. Shabanah, J. Chen, H. Wechsler, D. Carr, and E. Wegman. Designing computer games to teach algorithms. In 2010 Seventh International Conference on Information Technology, pages 1119--1126. IEEE, 2010.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[12]

S. Wallace, R. McCartney, and I. Russell. Games and machine learning: a powerful combination in an artificial intelligence course. Computer Science Education, 20(1):17--36, 2010.

Crossref

Google Scholar

[13]

N. Whitton. Motivation and computer game based learning. In Proceedings of the Australian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, Singapore. Citeseer, 2007.

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Lampropoulos GKeramopoulos EDiamantaras KEvangelidis G(2023)Integrating Augmented Reality, Gamification, and Serious Games in Computer Science EducationEducation Sciences10.3390/educsci1306061813:6(618)Online publication date: 16-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13060618
Araujo De Aguiar CSu CGaw JHuang WWalker KLu Y(2023)Nurturing Eco-Consciousness: The Journey of the EcoMorph Guardian in Shaping Tomorrow's Stewards.Proceedings of the 2023 Symposium on Learning, Design and Technology10.1145/3594781.3594804(119-122)Online publication date: 23-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3594781.3594804
Schulze JSauer TRudolph-Cleff AKnodt M(2023)Knowledge Transfer in Disaster Risk Management (DRM)Serious Games10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_35(405-412)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_35
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Using serious games in computer science education
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

Recommendations

Card games for teaching data structures and algorithms
Koli Calling '11: Proceedings of the 11th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

Data structures and algorithms have many elements and rules that can be used to design educational games. Many of the games used in education are played with a computer. However, cards games can also be used to teach students algorithms and to encourage ...
Alternate reality games for computer science education
Koli Calling '13: Proceedings of the 13th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

Alternate reality games (ARG) are games that often blur the boundaries of reality and fiction. They use many different types of media to deliver an interactive narrative to the players and include puzzles that are part of a bigger quest that the players ...
Voluntary Play in Serious Games
GALA 2015: Revised Selected Papers of the 4th International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance - Volume 9599

Voluntariness is an important feature of games. Serious game designers intend to generate engaging gameplay, which implies that voluntary play should be equally important for serious games as for entertainment games. This paper describes the outcome of ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

Koli Calling '11: Proceedings of the 11th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

November 2011

149 pages

ISBN:9781450310529

DOI:10.1145/2094131

Conference Chairs:
Ari Korhonen
Aalto University
,
Robert McCartney
University of Connecticut

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

In-Cooperation

SIGCSE: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 17 November 2011

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

Koli Calling '11

Sponsor:

Koli Calling '11: 11th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

November 17 - 20, 2011

Koli, Finland

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 80 of 182 submissions, 44%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

32
Total Citations
View Citations
1,372
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)79
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)21

Reflects downloads up to 15 Jan 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Lampropoulos GKeramopoulos EDiamantaras KEvangelidis G(2023)Integrating Augmented Reality, Gamification, and Serious Games in Computer Science EducationEducation Sciences10.3390/educsci1306061813:6(618)Online publication date: 16-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13060618
Araujo De Aguiar CSu CGaw JHuang WWalker KLu Y(2023)Nurturing Eco-Consciousness: The Journey of the EcoMorph Guardian in Shaping Tomorrow's Stewards.Proceedings of the 2023 Symposium on Learning, Design and Technology10.1145/3594781.3594804(119-122)Online publication date: 23-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3594781.3594804
Schulze JSauer TRudolph-Cleff AKnodt M(2023)Knowledge Transfer in Disaster Risk Management (DRM)Serious Games10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_35(405-412)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_35
Petri GGresse von Wangenheim CBorgatto ACalderón ARuiz M(2022)Digital Games for Computing EducationResearch Anthology on Developments in Gamification and Game-Based Learning10.4018/978-1-6684-3710-0.ch076(1571-1598)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-3710-0.ch076
Apiola MLopez-Pernas SSaqr MPears ADaniels MMalmi LTedre M(2022)From a National Meeting to an International Conference: A Scientometric Case Study of a Finnish Computing Education ConferenceIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2022.318471810(66576-66588)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3184718
Daoudi I(2022)Learning analytics for enhancing the usability of serious games in formal education: A systematic literature review and research agendaEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-022-11087-427:8(11237-11266)Online publication date: 3-May-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11087-4
Boss MKunz LWüthrich JHanne T(2022)Teaching Encryption Algorithms with Serious GamesHybrid Intelligent Systems10.1007/978-3-030-96305-7_46(495-507)Online publication date: 4-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96305-7_46
Montes HHijon-Neira RPerez-Marin DMontes S(2021)Using an Online Serious Game to Teach Basic Programming Concepts and Facilitate Gameful Experiences for High School StudentsIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2021.30496909(12567-12578)Online publication date: 2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3049690
Sharma KTorrado JGómez JJaccheri L(2021)Improving girls’ perception of computer science as a viable career option through game playing and design: Lessons from a systematic literature reviewEntertainment Computing10.1016/j.entcom.2020.10038736(100387)Online publication date: Jan-2021
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2020.100387
Moser LSaner KOggier VHanne T(2021)A Serious Game for Teaching Genetic AlgorithmsProceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2021, Volume 310.1007/978-3-030-89912-7_57(738-758)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89912-7_57
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Card games for teaching data structures and algorithms

Alternate reality games for computer science education

Voluntary Play in Serious Games