Reading mobile games throughout the curriculum

Abstract

We introduce ALE, a new framework for writing games for the Android platform. The primary motivation behind ALE is to emphasize reading code before writing it. Beginners read game code to learn how levels can be made, and advanced users read the code of ALE itself to learn how to create useful and extensible libraries. To date, roughly 200 students at our university have used ALE, ranging from first-semester engineering undergraduates through Masters students. ALE has proven useful in teaching non-majors about CS, in making introductory CS programming courses more exciting, and in encouraging creativity, entrepreneurship, and good program design in upper-level electives. Based on these experiences, we encourage educators at all levels to consider using ALE to improve students' ability to learn by reading code.

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

“…Here are some of the environments and editors that have been reported, categorised by the languages they support: [375], unnamed systems [168,452] C++: CLIP [392] Habanero Java: DrHJ [498] Haskell: Helium [254] Java: ALE [54] (Java-based platform for developing 2-D Android games), BlueJ [342], COALA [311], CodeMage [705], Decaf [58], DrJava Eclipse Plug-in [545], ELP [668], Gild [643], JGrasp [443], Jigsaw [100], Penumbra [457] Jeroo: Jeroo [571] Karel++: objectKarel [718] Pascal: VIPER [3] Python: CodeSkulptor [653], PyBlocks [516], Pythy [188] Multiple Languages: AgentSheets [121], Calico [79], Code-Lab [50], CloudCoder [491] The vast array of environments used with introductory programming courses includes command-line compilers, industry-grade IDEs, and pedagogical environments specifically intended for learning. Some of the pedagogical environments work with mainstream languages while others are designed to work with teaching languages.…”

Mobile application development classes for the mobile era

“…Mobile computing as a field of study is relatively new, and depending on the specific definition, 4 can encompass a wide range of topics: ranging from security, to wireless and sensor technologies, to applications. Because of our areas of expertise in application development, our students' preparations and interests, the potentials for employment opportunities, and the fact that most of the major vendors provide and support free development environments, we have quickly focused our "mobile computing" course to be the study of mobile application development.…”

“…With little requirements in programming and no basic knowledge in data structures, these classes are typically targeted at engaging non-major students through mobile application development (e.g., AppInventor [1,14,33,28] or mobile games based on simple libraries [4,16,17]), or at accomplishing other purposes (e.g., learning different programming languages [26]). These classes are not designed for students to understand issues surrounding mobile application development.…”