What Students Think About Game-Themed CS1

Abstract
There has been rising academic interest in including computer game programming in CS1 curriculum during the past years, and many experience reports exist on the topic. Still, there is a need for knowledge on student reception, that is, how the students themselves view the game theme on a CS1 course. In this paper we review our CS1 course feedback from the years 2008–2013, of which three first years were carried out without games, while the latter three years part of our weekly assignments, plus a bigger course assignment, have been “game-themed”. We found that over 90 % found contextualization through games fun, motivating or rewarding in some other way. Less than 10%of the respondents have somewhat a negative overtone about the course theme. At the same time, dropout rate has declined more than 12 percentage points.
Main Authors
Format
Conferences Conference paper
Published
2014
Series
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
Lappeenrannan teknillinen yliopisto
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201408222399Use this for linking
Parent publication ISBN
978-952-265-596-7
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2243-3376
Conference
Yhdistetyt tietojenkäsittelypäivät
Language
English
Published in
LUT Scientific and Expertise publications. Tutkimusraportit
Is part of publication
Yhdistetyt tietojenkäsittelypäivät 2014 = Federated Computer Science Event 2014 : 3.-4.6.2014 Lappeenranta, Finland
Citation
  • Lakanen, A.-J., & Lappalainen, V. (2014). What Students Think About Game-Themed CS1. In M. Koskela, & K. Heikkinen (Eds.), Yhdistetyt tietojenkäsittelypäivät 2014 = Federated Computer Science Event 2014 : 3.-4.6.2014 Lappeenranta, Finland (pp. 19-22). Lappeenrannan teknillinen yliopisto. LUT Scientific and Expertise publications. Tutkimusraportit, 24.
License
Open Access

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