Game2Learn Exploring Interactions of Programming in Games Paige Matthews

Background Game2Learn StormHaven Usability Study

Gender in Games Number of students enrolling in IT programs is declining Number of women in field is increasing however they make up less than 20% of the population Women are more likely to stay in the field if there are opportunities for collaborative learning

Number of students in IT programs is declining Develop an interesting interactive educational game that makes programming fun Number of students in program will increase as will diversity? Small number of women in the field

Summer Usability Study Hypothesis: People will prefer learning through a game as compared to traditional methods of learning programming Qualitative Study Primarily Testing: –If the games are enjoyable –If the subjects feel they can learn with games –If the subjects would prefer to learn from games such as these

Layout 2 games –2D, exploratory –3D, structured 3 quests – easy, medium, hard Why this layout? –Learning –Game structure –Interface

Game Prototypes Saving Sera RPG Maker game 2D game 1 version of the game Several quest interfaces The Catacombs Neverwinter Nights game 3D game 2 versions of the game Each version has a separate interface

Interfaces Saving Sera: –Fill in the blank –Code jumble –Symbolic Programming –Dialogue Tree The Catacombs: –Symbolic programming –Dialogue Trees

Overview of study Questionnaire Pre-test Playing the games –Play quests from Saving Sera –Play one version of The Catacombs Post-test Interview

Pre- and Post- Tests for ( int j = 0; j □□ ; j++ ) { for ( int k = 0; k □□ ; k++ ) { print( j + k + “ “); } print( “\n” ); }

Interview Background playing games Feedback for each quest Overall feedback Interview will provide our primary outcome measurements

Future Work Apply findings to Game2Learn game Compare learning with a game to traditional classroom learning Questions?