Mobile game development: improving student engagement and motivation in introductory computing courses

Abstract

Computer games have been accepted as an engaging and motivating tool in the computer science (CS) curriculum. However, designing and implementing a playable game is challenging, and is best done in advanced courses. Games for mobile devices, on the other hand, offer the advantage of being simpler and, thus, easier to program for lower level students. Learning context of mobile game development can be used to reinforce many core programming topics, such as loops, classes, and arrays. Furthermore, it can also be used to expose students in introductory computing courses to a wide range of advanced topics in order to illustrate that CS can be much more than coding. This paper describes the author’s experience with using mobile game development projects in CS I and II, how these projects were integrated into existing courses at several universities, and the lessons learned from this experience.

Keywords:

• games
• mobile computing
• mobile game development
• engagement
• motivation

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Dr Archana Chidanandan who was instrumental in getting this project started and for her contribution to the development of the learning modules at RHIT, Dr Delvin Defoe for his continued involvement with maintaining this project at RHIT, and Dr Braden Hosch for his invaluable contribution in the evaluation and assessment of this project. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants DUE-0630953 and DUE-1060352.