The Game-Themed Introductory Programming Project

As I was downloading the Microsoft XNA framework today, I began to research studies that have been conducted with CS1 courses using Microsoft XNA. I was curious to do some background work on XNA and its uses and how it may fit into our programming curriculum – especially an introductory programming concept course.

I noticed numerous papers written by Kelvin Sung, PhD from the University of Washington at Bothell. This paper caught my interest right away:

The Game-Themed Introductory Programming Project

http://depts.washington.edu/cmmr/Research/XNA_Games/index.php

The entire proposal can be found at:

http://depts.washington.edu/cmmr/Research/XNA_Games/OriginalProposal/ProjectDescription.pdf


The Purpose:

According to the author, the project was conceived as part of the efforts in addressing the recent decline in enrollments across Computer Science (CS) departments. It has been demonstrated that teaching CS concepts based on programming interactive graphical games motivates and engages students while accomplishing desired student learning outcomes. When properly integrated into introductory programming (CS1/2) courses, these approaches can build excitement and enthusiasm for the CS discipline and attract a bright new generation of students early in their academic careers.

The project addresses these issues by designing CS1/2 game-themed courseware materials.

Goals

To develop Game-Themed materials targeted specifically for selective adoption by faculty members with no background in computer graphics or computer games.

To develop supporting materials for interested faculty members building their own Game-Themed materials.

To assess and demonstrate the effectiveness of the Game-Themed materials in classrooms.

The primary targets are introductory programming courses (CS1/2).

Projects

Currently, there are two projects in progress:

XGA: XNA Game-themed Assignments:

* Seven (7) XNA-based game-themed assignment modules that can be transparently replaced into existing CS1/2 courses.

* Neither the adopting faculty nor the students need to have any knowledge in computer graphics or gaming.

XGC1: XNA Game-themed CS1:

* Examples organized according to typical approaches of covering foundational programming concepts.

* All examples run on the Xbox360 gaming console.

* Assignments and students self-test questions.

* Tutorials for faculty to develop their own game-themed CS1 materials

This is a client of games approach where designing games-themed assignments will teach foundational programming concepts.

Expected Outcome

The author stated that the most significant outcome from this work would be excitement from empowerment: for both students and faculty. For students, the XNA based assignments empower them to apply the mundane programming construct and abstract programming concepts in implementing games that they can play on their favorite gaming console. For faculty members, the XNA based assignments provide a simple and clear pathway and thus empower them to integrate games into their courses.

Pedagogically, from the programming language perspective, C# and Java are similar languages. Currently, many CS1/2 courses are based on Java. With the success of XNA-based games-themed programming assignment modules, an increase is expected in interest from faculty members switching from Java to C# in teaching their CS1/2 courses.

This study will oversee student learning outcomes by administering pre/posttests, collecting student perceptions, grading the assignments, and gathering faculty self-assessment based on faculty reflections on in class activities.

This course proposal was delivered at the SIGCSE 2009 conference in Nashville, TN on March 4 – 7, 2009.

At that time, the author delivered the course outline, exercises and exams, labs, projects, video demonstrations, audiovisual content, slides, tutorials, source code, and reference materials. These can be found at:

http://www.facultyresourcecenter.com/curriculum/FacetMain.aspx?ShowResults=1&FT=Search&Inline=1&SearchType=1&SearchText=Sung&LanguageList=

There is a plethora of information waiting to be read and digested.

My thoughts:

This study is still in progress as I write this. It sounds very promising and I’m anxiously awaiting the results. I checked with the MSDN Academic Alliance Repository to see what results, if any, have come in. Coming soon, it says.

From this perspective, I will continue exploring Microsoft XNA Game Express Edition on my own and use some of the materials that this research has derived to see if our students will glean the necessary constructs needed to be able to move to a university or perform tasks immediately in industry.

When I read a bio on Dr. Sung I found this statement in regard to his programming courses that utilized these types of games:

“His students have used the knowledge they acquired in his classes to advance their careers at Microsoft, to succeed in CS programs at four year schools, and to succeed at programming positions taken directly after graduation.”

Hmm…didn’t I just say that? Did I find a match?

--Debbie