Creative Computing Education

Tiffany Barnes

Eve Powell, Michael Eagle

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Declining computing enrollmentsDeclining computing enrollments

• Low retention rates & diversity

• Traditional lecture-based courses,

• Uninteresting, irrelevant assignments

• Low retention

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Creativity as a solutionCreativity as a solution

• Design/studio methods use– Open-ended challenges

– Learning in context

• But…– Design students often have experience/skills

– Computing students often have none

• Can we use design & problem-based learning to promote creativity learning in computing?

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Game2LearnGame2Learn

• A tiered project to:

• Provide creative problem-based learning experiences in computing

• Computing students build games to teach introductory computing

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GoalsGoals

1. increase students’ ability in computing through problem-based learning,

2. cultivate student creativity through design studio teaching methods,

3. situate student learning in authentic community of practice, including faculty and peers,

4. enhance recruiting and retention by including creativity in computing education

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• Students in summer research & senior projects:

– Are engaged in solving the computing recruiting and retention problem

– Build a game to teach intro. computer science

– Learn about HCI research methods

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Design challenge: a game that…Design challenge: a game that…1. Teaches an important computing concept

2. Provides complex, realistic interaction

3. Supports direct skill transfer to computing in other contexts

4. Allows students to visualize abstract concepts concretely

5. Provides immediate feedback

6. Is easy to download, use and play, even by novices

7. Is fun & motivates learning

8. Allows players to be creative in their solutions

9. Records all player actions in a log

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Using a game engineUsing a game engine

• With pre-made art, sounds, etc

• Promotes creativity in computing

• Engines used:

– NeverWinter Nights, RPG Maker, GameMaker

– XNA, Unity 3D

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Students: Why G2L?Students: Why G2L?

• We get to work in an established group

– on directed research

– to solve a real problem, and

– results will be used in real classes.

• We believe in the project & want to improve CS ed.

• To research what might be more effective in making learning games for women and minorities

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StudentsStudents

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Weeks Goal(s)

All Read relevant literature & keep research blog

1-2 Learn game engines by building small games

3 Select concepts & write sample target code

4 Brainstorm learning games for the concepts

4 Storyboard promising game ideas

5-7 Implement game prototypes

8-9 Playtest with potential users

10 Write & present results & literature reviews

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Concepts & TeamsConcepts & Teams

• CS1 concepts from ACM/IEEE curriculum:

– Conditionals, loops, recursion

• Students in teams of 2-3

• Mentored by a veteran G2L student

• Goal: Build game that allows interactive visualization of target concept

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Saving Sera The Catacombs:

Bunny Arrayser Wu’s Castle

EleMental: EleMental: The recurrenceThe recurrence

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cMotioncMotion

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Playtest QuotesPlaytest Quotes“It’s something other than mindless clicking. You

actually have to think, something rarely seen in games today.”

“I can see this going hand-in-hand with a class.”

“Coding was easier, but still got harder as I went”

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G2L during academic yearG2L during academic year

• New requirements:

– Complete summer studies

– Run a new study

– Balance Game2Learn with other responsibilities

• Implementation:

– Small teams (2 each)

– Less brainstorming time

– No formal storyboards

• A challenge for students to manage…

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G2L during academic yearG2L during academic year

• “Running the study first helped me understand how to do research and what kinds of games to make.”

• “Sometimes I lose focus and work on the wrong things.”

• “It was motivating to join in to an ongoing project, but hard to get started. I never expected that I would be presenting my work at the NC Undergraduate Research Symposium!”

• Planning more difficult

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It works!It works!

• High retention into graduate programs

• One game proven to show learning gains

• BUT

• It’s still challenging during academic year

Characteristics of design courseCharacteristics of design course• Overall

– Good schedule for development & testing

– Small, doable projects including research

• Small teams of 2-3 students & a veteran member

• Do early:

– Professor provides learning objectives & ed. samples

– Set goals early & do formal planning

– New students run studies with older games

• Conduct early and frequent playtests and demonstrations

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Continuing effortsContinuing efforts

• Measuring creativity

– Of created game, process, coding

• Measuring computing learning

• Creating curricular design and materials to transfer to course

• Learn from this how to leverage creativity in other computing courses

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Tiffany.Barnes@gmail.com

Eve Powell

Michael Eagle