An application of games‐based learning within software engineering

TLDR

Computer games are highly engaging and increasingly used in education, yet empirical evidence for their effectiveness in software engineering remains scarce. The paper investigates the use of computer games to teach software engineering concepts and outlines a game under development for this purpose. The authors review relevant literature and describe the design of a prototype computer game intended to convey software engineering principles.

Abstract

Abstract For some time now, computer games have played an important role in both children and adults' leisure activities. While there has been much written on the negative aspects of computer games, it has also been recognised that they have potential advantages and benefits. There is no doubt that computer games are highly engaging and incorporate features that are extremely compelling. It is these highly engaging features of computer games that have attracted the interests of educationalists. The use of games‐based learning has been growing for many years now; however, within software engineering, there is still a dearth of empirical evidence to support this approach. In this paper, we examine the literature on the use of computer games to teach software engineering concepts and describe a computer game we have been developing to teach these concepts.