Serious games are considered an effective method to engage students in programming education and have been increasingly used in classrooms. An important part of the learning process with serious games involves the presentation of the new concepts and the provided support to encounter student difficulties. Although the most common approach is the use of instructional text, it comes with some drawbacks. This paper proposes an alternative method for user support in serious games about programming which mitigates current problems and provides improved learning efficiency. An experiment was conducted (N = 291) to test textual instructions learning efficiency compared to in-game worked examples. Two randomly assigned groups used different types of support in a block-based game, developed for the study. Our implementation provided support through a non-player character who executed worked examples inside the game world. The analysis showed a significant statistical difference in score performance between the two supports on both novice and experienced students. The results point to increased learning efficiency by students, when in-game worked examples and problem-solving are combined. We further argue that the Cognitive load theory can provide adequate justification for the outcomes.
Abdul-RahmanS.-S.du BoulayB. (2014). Learning programming via worked-examples: Relation of learning styles to cognitive load. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 286–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.09.007
2.
AndersenE.O’RourkeE.LiuY.-E.SniderR.LowdermilkJ.TruongD.CooperS.PopovicZ. (2012). The impact of tutorials on games of varying complexity. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Paris France, 27 April 2013–2 May 2013 (pp. 59–68). https://doi.org/10.1145/2207676.2207687
3.
AtkinsonR. K.DerryS. J.RenklA.WorthamD. (2000). Learning from Examples: Instructional principles from the worked examples research. Review of Educational Research. 70(12)181–214. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543070002181
4.
BellottiF.BertaR.GloriaA. D. (2010). Designing effective serious games: Opportunities and challenges for research. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (IJET), 5(S13), ■■■. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v5s3.1500
5.
ChandlerP.SwellerJ. (1991). Cognitive load theory and the format of instruction. Cognition and Instruction, 8(4), 293–332. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci0804_2
6.
ChiM. T. H.BassokM.LewisM. W.ReimannP.GlaserR. (1989). Self-explanations: How students study and use examples in learning to solve problems. Cognitive Science, 13(2), 145–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/0364-0213(89)90002-5
7.
CooperG.SwellerJ. (1987). Effects of schema acquisition and rule automation on mathematical problem-solving transfer. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79(4), 347–362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.79.4.347
GinnsP.MartinA. J.MarshH. W. (2013). Designing instructional text in a conversational style: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 25(4), 445–472. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-013-9228-0
13.
GrossP.KelleherC. (2010). Non-programmers identifying functionality in unfamiliar code: Strategies and barriers. Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, 21(5), 263–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvlc.2010.08.002
14.
Hour of Code: Join the movement. (n.d.). Code.Org. Retrieved 13 March 2021, fromhttps://hourofcode.com/
15.
IchincoM.HarmsK.KelleherC. (2017). Towards understanding successful novice example use in blocks-based programming. Journal of Visual Languages and Sentient Systems, 3(1), 101–118. https://doi.org/10.18293/VLSS2017-012
16.
JonassenD. H. (1997). Instructional design models for well-structured and III-structured problem-solving learning outcomes. Educational Technology Research and Development, 45(1), 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02299613
17.
KalyugaS.ChandlerP.TuovinenJ.SwellerJ. (2001). When problem solving is superior to studying worked examples. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(3), 579–588. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.93.3.579
LaineT. H.LindbergR. S. N. (2020). Designing engaging games for education: A systematic literature review on game motivators and design principles. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 13(4), 804–821. https://doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2020.3018503
20.
LunenburgF. C. (n.d.) Goal-setting theory of motivation (p. 6). Management Study Guide.
21.
MaganaA.VieiraC.YanJ. (2015). Exploring design characteristics of worked examples to support programming and algorithm design. The Journal of Computational Science Education, 6(1), 2–15. https://doi.org/10.22369/issn.2153-4136/6/1/1
22.
MeierD. K.ReinhardK. J.CarterD. O.BrooksD. W. (2008). Simulations with elaborated worked example modeling: beneficial effects on schema acquisition. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 17(3), 262–273. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-008-9096-4
MIT App Inventor. (n.d.). Explore MIT App inventor. Retrieved 25 November 2021, fromhttps://appinventor.mit.edu/
25.
MolnarA.KostkovaP. (2013) On effective integration of educational content in serious games: Text vs. Game mechanics. In IEEE 13th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, Beijing, China, July 15 2013–July 18 2013, (pp. 299–303). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2013.94
26.
PaasF.RenklA.SwellerJ. (2003). Cognitive load theory and instructional design: recent developments. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_1
27.
PaasF.van GogT. (2006). Optimising worked example instruction: Different ways to increase germane cognitive load. Learning and Instruction, 16(2 SPEC. ISS.), 87–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2006.02.004
28.
PatinoA.RomeroM.ProulxJ. (2016). Analysis of game and learning mechanics according to the learning theories. In 2016 8th international conference on games and virtual worlds for serious applications (VS-games), September 7 2016–September 9 2016, Barcelona, Spain, (pp. 1–4). https://doi.org/10.1109/VS-GAMES.2016.7590337
29.
ProulxV. K. (2000). Programming patterns and design patterns in the introductory computer science course. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 32(1), 80–84. https://doi.org/10.1145/331795.331819
SpielerB.PfaffN.SlanyW. (2020). Reducing cognitive load through the worked example effect within a serious game Environment. In 2020 6th international conference of the immersive learning research network (ILRN), San Luis Obispo, CA, June 21-25, (pp. 1–8). https://doi.org/10.23919/iLRN47897.2020.9155187
SwellerJ.CooperG. A. (1985). The use of worked examples as a substitute for problem solving in learning algebra. Cognition and Instruction, 2(1), 59–89. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci0201_3
34.
SwellerJ.van MerrienboerJ. J. G.PaasF. G. W. C. (1998). Cognitive architecture and instructional design. Educational Psychology Review, 10(3), 251–296. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022193728205
35.
Unity Real-Time, (n.d.). Development Platform | 3D, 2D VR & AR engine. Retrieved 12 December 2021, fromhttps://unity.com/
36.
WhiteM. M. (2014). Learn to play: Designing tutorials for video games. CRC Press.
37.
XinogalosS. (2016). Designing and deploying programming courses: Strategies, tools, difficulties and pedagogy. Education and Information Technologies, 21(Issue 3), 559–588. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-014-9341-9
38.
ZhiR.LytleN.PriceT. W. (2018). Exploring instructional support design in an educational game for K-12 computing education. In Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Baltimore MD, February 21–24, (pp. 747–752). https://doi.org/10.1145/3159450.3159519
39.
ZhiR.PriceT. W.MarwanS.MillikenA.BarnesT.ChiM. (2019). Exploring the impact of worked examples in a novice programming environment. In Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Minneapolis MN, 27 February 2019- 2 March 2019, (pp. 98–104). https://doi.org/10.1145/3287324.3287385
