Teaching computer science with virtual worlds

Author

Slator, Brian M. ; Hill, Curt ; Val, Dayna Del

Author_Institution

Comput. Sci. Dept., North Dakota State Univ., Fargo, ND, USA

Volume

47

Issue

2

fYear

2004

fDate

5/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

269

Lastpage

275

Abstract

The ProgrammingLand MOOseum of Computer Science is a multiuser virtual environment hosted on the Internet. It is built on a model of exploratory, spatially oriented immersion, where visitors learn principles of computer science as they journey through the content. The MOOseum is divided into "wings" that are devoted to particular programming languages and is populated with an array of interactive objects and agents that facilitate an active learning experience. This paper describes the environment and the effort to integrate it into the curriculum.

Keywords

Internet; computer science education; educational computing; teaching; virtual reality; Internet; ProgrammingLand MOOseum; active learning; computer science education; educational media; online learning; programming language; virtual worlds; Cities and towns; Computer aided instruction; Computer languages; Computer science; Education; Helium; Internet; Neodymium; Programming; Virtual environment; Active learning; educational media; online learning; virtual environments;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Education, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9359

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TE.2004.825513

Filename

1296789