Integrating games and machine learning in the undergraduate computer science classroom

Abstract

A student will be more likely motivated to pursue a field of study if they encounter relevant and interesting challenges early in their studies. The authors are PIs on two NSF funded course curriculum development projects (CCLI). Each project seeks to provide compelling curricular modules for use in the Computer Science classroom starting as soon as CS 1. In this paper, we describe one curriculum module which is the synergistic result of these two projects. This module provides a series of challenges for undergraduate students by using a game environment to teach machine learning and classic Artificial Intelligence concepts.

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

“…Current students, more than at any time before, need a classroom experience that they can relate to, that is creative and challenging, and makes a difference in preparing for their careers. To address this challenge, the design, development, and implementation of computer games has been used in CS classrooms in many ways: as a general engagement tool (Bayliss & Strout, 2006;Clua et al, 2006); as motivators and examples in introductory programming courses (Barnes et al, 2007;Leutenegger & Edgington, 2007;Sweedyk et al, 2005); as capstone courses (Barnes et al, 2007;Parberry, Roden, & Kazemzadeh, 2005;Wallace, Russell, & Markov, 2008); in interdisciplinary programs connecting CS with arts and humanities (Diefenbach, 2011;Murray, Bogost, Mateas, & Nitsche, 2006;Sweedyk et al, 2005, Wolz & Pulimood, 2007; as a well-fitting instrument to teach computer graphics (Sung, Shirley, & Rosenberg, 2007;Sweedyk et al, 2005), artificial intelligence (Wallace et al, 2008), project management (Wolz & Pulimood, 2007), and software engineering (Claypool & Claypool, 2005;Gestwicki, 2007;Lin & Sun, 2011); or as a concentration within existing CS programs (Coleman, Krembs, Labouseur, & Weir, 2005;Zhang and Jones, 2012;Zyda et al, 2008). Successes of several very large projects [including Alice (Cooper, Dann, & Pausch, 2003) and Scratch (Peppler & Kafai, 2007)] aimed at the broad application of computer game development as a learning framework have been widely publicized.…”

“…A number of surveys indicate that the majority of students prefer programming projects and assignments that one way or another involves computer games (Cliburn & Miller, 2008). Furthermore, many students say that their choice of CS as a major was sparked by computer games (Parberry et al, 2005;Wallace et al, 2008).…”

Engaging students through mobile game development

“…Current students, more than at any time before, need a classroom experience that they can relate to, that is creative and challenging, and makes a difference in preparing for their careers. To address this challenge, design, programming, and development of computer games has been used in CS classrooms in many ways: as a general engagement tool [2,10]; as motivators and examples in introductory programming courses [1,17,28]; as capstone courses [1,24,29]; in interdisciplinary programs connecting CS Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.…”

“…To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. with arts and humanities [22,28,30]; as a well-fitting instrument to teach computer graphics [27,28], artificial intelligence [28,29], project management [30], and software engineering [8,13,28]; or as a concentration within existing CS programs [11,31]. A number of surveys indicate that majority of students prefer programming projects and assignments that one way or another involve computer games [9].…”

“…A number of surveys indicate that majority of students prefer programming projects and assignments that one way or another involve computer games [9]. Furthermore, many students say that their choice of CS as a major was sparked by computer games [24,29].…”