Visualizing Loops Using a Game-Like Instructional Module

Author

Jinghua Zhang ; Atay, Melike ; Caldwell, Elvira R. ; Jones, Elva J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Winston-Salem State Univ., Winston-Salem, NC, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

15-18 July 2013

Firstpage

448

Lastpage

450

Abstract

Loops are one of the most challenging concepts for students who are new to programming. This paper presents a game-like instructional module titled "Iterative Dungeon" that was designed to help students visualize the looping process. This module visualizes and reinforces the for loop, nested for loop and while loop. It has been used and evaluated in the CSC1310 Computer Programming I class during Fall 2012 at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU). To evaluate the impact of this module, a pre-test, a post-test, a survey, and interviews were conducted. Promising results, positive feedback and favorable comments from students show that this game module has positive impact on student learning.

Keywords

computer aided instruction; computer games; computer science education; data visualisation; CSC1310 computer programming class; Iterative Dungeon game; Winston-Salem State University; game module; game-like instructional module; loops visualization; programming student; student learning; Computer science education; Floors; Games; Programming profession; Visualization; computer programming; computer science education; gaming; simulation; visalization;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), 2013 IEEE 13th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Beijing

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICALT.2013.137

Filename

6601979