Creative Computing Education Tiffany Barnes Eve Powell, Michael Eagle

Tiffany Barnes Declining computing enrollments Low retention rates & diversity Traditional lecture-based courses, Uninteresting, irrelevant assignments Low retention

Tiffany Barnes Creativity 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?

Tiffany Barnes Game2Learn A tiered project to: Provide creative problem-based learning experiences in computing Computing students build games to teach introductory computing

Tiffany Barnes Goals 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

Tiffany Barnes 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

Tiffany Barnes 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

Tiffany Barnes Using a game engine With pre-made art, sounds, etc Promotes creativity in computing Engines used: – NeverWinter Nights, RPG Maker, GameMaker – XNA, Unity 3D

Tiffany Barnes 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

Tiffany Barnes Students

Tiffany Barnes WeeksGoal(s) AllRead relevant literature & keep research blog 1-2Learn game engines by building small games 3Select concepts & write sample target code 4Brainstorm learning games for the concepts 4Storyboard promising game ideas 5-7Implement game prototypes 8-9Playtest with potential users 10Write & present results & literature reviews

Tiffany Barnes Concepts & 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

Tiffany Barnes

Tiffany Barnes Saving Sera The Catacombs: Bunny Arrayser Wu’s Castle

EleMental: The recurrence

Tiffany Barnes cMotion

Tiffany Barnes Playtest 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”

Tiffany Barnes G2L 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…

Tiffany Barnes G2L 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

Tiffany Barnes 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 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

Tiffany Barnes Continuing 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

Tiffany Barnes Eve Powell Michael Eagle