OBJECTIVE
There has been an international decline in university enrolment rates for computer science courses in recent years. There also exists a distinct gender divide in the subject, with female students exhibiting disinterest in a useful and interesting field due to a wide variety of reasons. In order to try to counteract these two deficiencies in computer science, the way the subject is being taught and presented to students should be revisited and improved upon. The use of educational games to teach basic computer science skills in contextualized and interactive ways could generate enthusiasm and interest for the subject. This approach should be tailored towards a gender neutral teaching method, in order to be more inclusive and approachable. Teaching computational thinking through situational problem solving will place what the students learn in context as well as help reveal the relevance of these skills. The abstract nature of computer science causes a lot of females to shy away from the field but a contextualized approach has been shown to increase students' interest and investment in subject matter, regardless of gender. Research has revealed that females feel less comfortable about interacting with computers for various reasons. By presenting these students with an easy to play game, the confidence levels amongst female students could be increased. An adventure style game was developed with increasing levels of difficulty to be used by first year computer science students during their computational thinking module. By researching teaching and game trends, the game is specifically designed to appeal to both genders. Through continuous encouragement, veiled assistance and enjoyment, computer science can hopefully be re-evaluated by students as a fascinating field that is worth becoming involved in. This paper presents a discussion of the design and development of the adventure style game for teaching computational thinking basics and how it was evaluated.
PROPOSED TIMELINE
11 MARCH 2014: PROPOSAL SEMINAR
14 MAY 2014: DEPARTMENTAL SURVEY
Run a survey amoungst the student and staff in the CS and IS departments to gather information about the prevalent opinions on my project topic
30 MAY 2014: LITERATURE REVIEW
Due date
21 JULY 2014: INTIAL CSC 112 SURVEY
A survey to assess the feelings and attitudes amongst first year students towards computer science and problem solving before the course begins
29 JULY 2014: SECOND SEMINAR
18 AUGUST 2014: APPLICATION TRIAL RUN
Final test of the application before deployment
22 SEPTEMBER 2014: SECOND CSC 112 SURVEY
Reassess attitudes to track change over the course of previous CS subjects
22 - 26 SEPTEMBER 2014: CSC 112 USE APPLICATION
Students get to use application
29 SEPTEMBER 2014: FINAL CSC 112 SURVEY
Final survey to assess the effect of the application
17 OCTOBER 2014: SHORT PAPER
Due date
27 - 29 OCTOBER 2014: FINAL SEMINAR
31 OCTOBER 2014: THESIS DUE