Just for Fun: Using Programming Games in Software Programming Training and Education--A Field Study of IBM Robocode Community.

Abstract

Improving learning effectiveness has always been a constant challenge in software education and training. One of the primary tasks educators face is to motivate learners to perform to their best abilities. Using computer games is one means to encourage learners to learn (Klawe, 1994). When games are used in general education, they could enhance self-esteem for the learners, reduce training time and instructor load, provide more opportunities for practice and enhance knowledge acquisition (Brownfield & Vik, 1983; Ricci, 1994). Moreover, researchers have noted many benefits of using computer games in IT education as well. For instance, it has been shown that a game-based environment is more enjoyable to the users than a traditional environment in IT training (Venkatesh, 1999). In this study, we focused on one game: IBM Robocode. We examined the characteristics of Robocode and the Robocode community. We addressed the following research questions: (1) How did the Robocode game influence the participant’s learning outcomes? Did the participant’s programming skills and knowledge improve after playing the Robocode game? (2) Was the Robocode game enjoyable to participants with different ages, education and skill levels? (3) What did the participants like the most about the Robocode game? (4) What were the factors that influence the participant’s motivation? (5) What activities of the game were

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 29 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.