Reflection is a critical aspect of the learning process. However, educational games tend to focus on supporting learning concepts rather than supporting reflection. While reflection occurs in educational games, the educational game design and research community can benefit from more knowledge of how to facilitate player reflection through game design. In this paper, we examine educational programming games and analyze how reflection is currently supported. We find that current approaches prioritize accuracy over the individual learning process and often only support reflection post-gameplay. Our analysis identifies common reflective features, and we develop a set of open areas for future work. We discuss these promising directions towards engaging the community in developing more mechanics for reflection in educational games.
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Using Game Design Mechanics as Metaphors to Enhance Learning of Introductory Programming Concepts
There are several educational games and tools that teach program- ming. However, very few offer a deep understanding of Computer Science concepts such as Abstraction, Modularity, Semantics, and Debugging. We present May’s Journey, an educational game that supports learning of basic programming concepts, where players solve puzzles and interact with the environment by typing in a cus- tom programming language. The game design seamlessly integrates learning goals, core mechanics, and narrative elements. We discuss how we integrate the CS concepts mentioned above using game mechanic metaphors.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1810972
- PAR ID:
- 10104446
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Foundations of Digital Games
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Reflection is a critical aspect of the learning process. However, educational games tend to focus on supporting learning concepts rather than supporting reflection. While reflection occurs in educational games, the educational game design and research community can benefit from more knowledge of how to facilitate player reflection through game design. In this paper, we examine educational programming games and analyze how reflection is currently supported. We find that current approaches prioritize accuracy over the individual learning process and often only support reflection post-gameplay. Our analysis identifies common reflective features, and we develop a set of open areas for future work. We discuss these promising directions towards engaging the community in developing more mechanics for reflection in educational games.more » « less
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