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Title: Autonomy-Supportive Game Benefits Both Inexperienced and Experienced Programmers
As more people turn to discretionary online tools to learn new skills such as computer programming, exploring how to better support a wide range of learners is becoming increasingly essential to train the next generation of highly skilled technology workers. In our prior work, users with high learner autonomy complained that most online resources they used to learn more programming did not provide them with the flexibility they preferred to navigate through learning materials, locking them into a set sequence of topics/concepts. To explore this, we implemented a level-jumping feature into an online educational programming game. We tested it with 350 new users, tracking their progress through the game for 7 days each. We found that those with high learner autonomy did use the level jumping feature more than those with low learner autonomy. We also found that males were more likely to use this new feature, regardless of learner autonomy level, compared to their female counterparts. Finally, we found that those with low learner autonomy ultimately completed more levels than their high autonomy counterparts, and that this was particularly true of female learners (who completed the most levels overall). Based on these findings, we believe that autonomous-supportive features such as flexible navigation may be beneficial to all users of online educational tools, and that encouraging its use by a wider group of users (particularly females), may increase positive effects.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1837489
PAR ID:
10332897
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of computing sciences in colleges
Volume:
37
Issue:
2
ISSN:
1937-4771
Page Range / eLocation ID:
89-97
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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