An Approach to Teaching Introductory Programming for IT Professionals Using Games

Abstract

This paper addresses the difficulties of teaching introductory programming to students in the field of information technologies and computer science. It reviews several existing approaches to make learning programming more attractive: using games or programmatically controlled hardware devices. The author believes that programming moving virtual actors motivates most of the students to learn programming. Moreover, seeing moving visual objects on the computer screen makes it easier for the students to perceive the mistakes in their code and correct them. However, writing such programs without any additional tools is not a task for a novice programmer. That is why this paper proposes an approach for teaching programming for IT professionals using a new game library, specially developed for training, which controls virtual models moving in a virtual environment. The system uses appealing 3D graphics to attract attention. Several sample programs, illustrating main features of this approach, are presented. Screenshots of the sample programs and results of teaching a pilot group of students are given at the end of the paper. Initial results show that the students enjoyed the course, most of them liked the game library approach better than the traditional one and do recommend using it in the future. More than half of the trainees improved their results.

Blended learning models for introductory programming courses: A systematic review

“…Introductory programming is becoming a core course to many undergraduate degrees. However, teaching introductory programming courses is still challenging for most instructors [11, 12]. The literature shows many reasons for that.…”

An Action Research Study on the Development of Object-Oriented Programming Course

“…Many scholars attempt to increase students' interests and course outcomes by tailoring games into course curriculums (Kucher, 2021). In this respect, the idea of using games in programming education is not a new practice (Vassilev, 2015). "Karel the Robot" (Pattis, Roberts, & Stehlik, 1995) is a pioneering programming microworld for teaching programming.…”

“…One of the strategies proposed by a growing number of researchers is to reinforce students' motivation and improve attitudes by incorporating games and game programming into programming courses (Çelik, 2020;Kazimoglu, Kiernan, Bacon & Mackinnon, 2012;Yan, 2009). The rationale for this idea is to use a familiar and engaging context for students, allowing them to learn new concepts and arouse their curiosity through challenging them (Leutenegger & Edgington, 2007;Malliarakis, Satratzemi, & Xinogalos;Spires, Rowe, Mott, & Lester;Vassilev, 2015).…”

Analysis on the Requirements of Computational Thinking Skills to Overcome the Difficulties in Learning Programming

“…Job opportunities and daily activities that involve computers have encouraged students to pursue computing, such as computer engineering, computer science, information science, and software engineering, as a career [1]. The U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that computing represented 71% of the careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by 2018 [2].…”

“…Programming is emphasized in schools and even at the pre-university level in order to provide students with a good knowledge base and programming skills. However, it is a challenging and complex process to learn programming [3][4] [1], since it requires good cognitive ability. Novice programmers often face problems during the introductory course of programming [5] [6] that may cause hesitation to pursue the advanced courses of programming.…”