The effects of serious games on students’ conceptual knowledge of object-oriented programming and computational thinking skills

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of a serious game, Curious Robots: Operation Asgard (Meraklı Robotlar: Operasyon Asgard), on undergraduate students’ learning performance on conceptual knowledge of object-oriented programming (OOP) of and computational thinking (CT) skills in Turkish. The study was conducted with a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design model. Data were collected from 30 freshman students without programming experience and 31 sophomore students with procedural programming experience. Each student took a creative problem-solving test and a pre-test before playing the game. After playing the developed game, students took a post-test and an attitude scale for serious game assisted programming learning. Analyses showed that the game helped students to develop conceptual knowledge of OOP and improve their CT skills. Analysis also showed that there were no significant two-way or direct interactions among students’ creative problem-solving skills, attitudes towards digital game-based learning of programming on the achievement scores of students. This study makes a significant contribution to the literature by providing empirical data about the effects of serious games on novice programmers’ conceptual knowledge of OOP and CT skills. It is thought that in the lights of the findings of the study, serious game designers and instructors would have the opportunity to design effective games that help novice programmers to overcome their learning difficulties and improve their learning.