Gidget: An online debugging game for learning and engagement in computing education

Abstract

As interest in acquiring programming skills continue to increase, many are turning to discretionary online resources to learn programming. However, researchers and educators need more data to better understand who these learners are and what their needs are to create useful and sustainable learning technologies to support them. In my work, I investigate the factors that make a learning game engaging for users, and examine if playing through the game shows measurable learning outcomes. The game will be released the public, giving us the opportunity to collect large amounts of data. This data can be shared with other researchers to improve discretionary online tools such as educational games to support large-scale computing education efforts designed for a wide-range of users.