Using Serious Game to Enhance Learning and Teaching Algorithmic

Abstract

Data structures and algorithms are important foundation topics in computer science education. However, they are considered to be hard to teach and learn because usually model complicated concepts, refer to abstract mathematical notions, or describe complex dynamic changes in data structures. Many students in programming courses have difficulties to master all required competencies and skills especially at introductory level. There are different approaches to improve the dropout rate at programming courses. Recently, games are increasingly being used for education in various fields. We hypothesize that games have the potential to be an important teaching tool for their interactive, engaging and immersive activities. So they can improve student engagement, motivation, and consequently learning. To this end, we are developing a game to teach basic algorithmic concepts and algorithms. We aim to initially investigate the educational games developed for and used in the computer programming domain and review to which level they address the aforementioned difficulties. Then, we propose a new role playing game AlgoGame that contains some of the positive features identified in existing solutions and incorporates missing elements.