Engaging students through mobile game development

Abstract

This paper describes using mobile game development as a motivational tool to engage students early in the curriculum. Mobile devices have become an integral part of everyday lives of modern students; using these devices as a part of the coursework may help them see the immediate connections between Computer Science and real-world technology. Compared to traditional game development, programming mobile games is less complex, which enables students with limited programming experience to create playable mobile games within the scope of a single course. Experience presented in this paper may be easily duplicated, but it may be especially useful in the first college-level course for students with CS AP credits.

Mobile game development: improving student engagement and motivation in introductory computing courses

“…Casual games (Koivisto, 2006;Kurkovsky, 2009) are the most popular kind of mobile games, mostly due to the patterns of mobile phone usage. Casual games are characterized by extremely simple gameplay (e.g.…”

Using Technology to Enhance Learning: Computer Science Lecturers’ Perceptions towards Mobile Technology and Serious Games in Class

“…While desktop computers are mainly used to teach the vast majority of Computer Science (CS) modules, Kurkovsky (2009b) suggests that students increasingly relate computing technology with mobile devices rather than with desktop computers. Mahmoud (2008) introduced mobile devices into programming courses and achieved excellent results in terms of student enthusiasm and satisfaction.…”

“…In many cases Computer Science students end up changing majors after the first or second year of study because they find the course material irrelevant to practical applications (Beaubouef & Mason, 2005). Kurkovsky (2009b) argues that if this situation is to be reversed it is very important for the Computer Science curriculum to stay applicable and relevant to today's reality and engage students by making a strong connection between computing and students' everyday lives. Students need a conducive, creative and challenging classroom environment to which they can relate and make a difference in preparing for their careers (Kurkovsky, 2009b).…”

“…Kurkovsky (2009b) argues that if this situation is to be reversed it is very important for the Computer Science curriculum to stay applicable and relevant to today's reality and engage students by making a strong connection between computing and students' everyday lives. Students need a conducive, creative and challenging classroom environment to which they can relate and make a difference in preparing for their careers (Kurkovsky, 2009b). In this way "we nurture a new generation of creative, systematic thinkers who are comfortable in using programming to express their ideas" (Resnick, Maloney, Hernańdez, Rusk, Eastmond, Brennan et al, 2009:60).…”

“…From the many definitions of serious games (Garris, Ahlers & Driskell, 2002;Micheal & Chen, 2006;Vogel, Vogel, Cannon-Bowers, Bowers, Muse & Wright, 2006;Wouters, van der Spek & van Oostendorp, 2009) one can conclude that a serious game is goal-directed, has a competitive activity and is conducted within a framework of agreed rules (Lindley, 2004) and enable players to monitor their progress towards the goal, while providing constant feedback (Prensky, 2001). The value of introducing serious games in the classroom has also received wide attention recently (Kurkovsky, 2009b). Many studies (e.g.…”