A blocks-based serious game to support introductory computer programming in undergraduate education

Abstract

Blocks-based environments have been used to promote computational thinking (CT) and programming learning mostly in elementary and middle schools. In many countries, like Brazil and Portugal, isolated initiatives have been launched to promote CT learning, but until now there is no evidence of a widespread use of this type of environments. Consequently, it is not common that students that reach higher education nowadays are familiar with CT and programming. This paper presents the development of a serious game to support the learning of basic computer programming. It is a blocks-based environment including also resources that allow the teacher to follow the student’s progress and customize in-game tasks. Four cycles of experiments were conducted, improving both the game and how it was used. Based on the results of these experiences, the key contribution of this paper is a set of fourteen findings and recommendations to the creation and use of a game-based approach to support introductory computer programming learning for novices.