Students Perceptions of Using Educational Games to Learn Introductory Programming

Abstract

Educational computer games studies experienced rapid growth due to the belief that games can offer various learning benefits being highly popular among younger generations. Programming is considered a challenging subject by students and teachers, consequently students feel less motivated to learn it. It is important to know how educational games can help to enhance our student's motivation and learning perceptions towards Programming. This paper discusses the authors' pilot study of undergraduate students' perceptions towards using educational games as their learning medium using five constructs: motivation, attitudes, cognitive development, interface and expectation with 24 items. The findings indicated that most students had encouraging positive attitudes and were more motivated to learn Programming using games compared to conventional methods. The findings are hopefully will help to enrich knowledge in understanding students' perceptions regarding educational games for learning, particularly in the Malaysian context.

KLouro: Um jogo educacional para motivar alunos iniciantes em programação

“…Ibrahim et al (2011) comenta que jogos educacionais podem oferecer muitos benefícios para o aprendizado dos estudantes com base na natureza altamente motivacional dos próprios jogos de computador, bem como por causa do comportamento da nova geração de alunos. Segundo Moratori (2003), o jogo pode ser considerado como um importante meio educacional, pois propicia um desenvolvimento integral e dinâmico nas áreas cognitiva, afetiva, linguística, social, moral e motora, além de contribuir para a construção da autonomia, criticidade, criatividade, responsabilidade e cooperação.…”

The Relations of Metacognitive Awareness, Multiple Intelligences and Gender with Undergraduates' Perceived Motivation in Using Multimedia

“…Many studies have shown that students' academic performances are highly related to their levels of motivation [6]. Especially in programming, motivation on student learning needs greater emphasis given that learning the subject matter is inherently challenging, which can easily make students unmotivated or frustrated [22].…”

Teaching Business Programming Using Games: A Critical Analysis

“…The findings from Nor Azan and Wong (2008) indicated that 92% of secondary students have experience playing computer games on various computing platforms. Ibrahim, Yusoff, Omar and Jaafar (2011) cite a number of studies to underscore the fact that motivation is indicated as instrumental in students' use of computer games. For example, Roslina, Rasimah and Azizah (2008) found that 100% of year one and year two students in a local university play computer games, with 35% of them playing games almost every day.…”