Astrocode: a serious game for the development of computational thinking skills

Autores
Bione, Javier; Miceli, Pablo; Sanz, Cecilia Verónica; Artola, Verónica
Año de publicación
2017
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
documento de conferencia
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
Serious Games have been the focus of different research works in last years, as a consequence of their possibilities for educational scenarios. These games are used for purposes other than mere entertainment, but they are still motivating and attractive to users. More recent research works have also emphasized the potential of serious games for learning, skill acquisition, and attitude and behavior changes considering that they allow learners to experience situations that are impossible in the real world and provide engaging activities which are stimulating, generate strong emotions, require complex information processing, and provide challenges. On the other hand, programming teaching is a growing area that is spreading beyond computer science courses of studies. Computational Thinking (CT) is related to a problem solving process that involves a number of characteristics and skills such as applying abstraction and algorithms design. CT is important in computer applications, but it can also be used to support problem solving across all disciplines. Today, there is a growing corpus of experiences whose goals include CT skills development. This paper presents AstroCode, a serious game which is oriented to introduce players to CT skills such as algorithm design using variables and control structures. The description of the game and the test sessions held with different students of the National University of La Plata are detailed in this article. The first results show student engagement and motivation using these types of games in an educational scenario, as well as the difficulties they face in the use of control structures and how AstroCode helps students apply them.
Instituto de Investigación en Informática
Materia
Ciencias Informáticas
Serious game
Computational thinking skills
3D Games
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/118311

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spelling Astrocode: a serious game for the development of computational thinking skillsBione, JavierMiceli, PabloSanz, Cecilia VerónicaArtola, VerónicaCiencias InformáticasSerious gameComputational thinking skills3D GamesSerious Games have been the focus of different research works in last years, as a consequence of their possibilities for educational scenarios. These games are used for purposes other than mere entertainment, but they are still motivating and attractive to users. More recent research works have also emphasized the potential of serious games for learning, skill acquisition, and attitude and behavior changes considering that they allow learners to experience situations that are impossible in the real world and provide engaging activities which are stimulating, generate strong emotions, require complex information processing, and provide challenges. On the other hand, programming teaching is a growing area that is spreading beyond computer science courses of studies. Computational Thinking (CT) is related to a problem solving process that involves a number of characteristics and skills such as applying abstraction and algorithms design. CT is important in computer applications, but it can also be used to support problem solving across all disciplines. Today, there is a growing corpus of experiences whose goals include CT skills development. This paper presents AstroCode, a serious game which is oriented to introduce players to CT skills such as algorithm design using variables and control structures. The description of the game and the test sessions held with different students of the National University of La Plata are detailed in this article. The first results show student engagement and motivation using these types of games in an educational scenario, as well as the difficulties they face in the use of control structures and how AstroCode helps students apply them.Instituto de Investigación en Informática2017info:eu-repo/semantics/conferenceObjectinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionObjeto de conferenciahttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeConferenciaapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/118311enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://library.iated.org/view/BIONE2017ASTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-03T10:59:56Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/118311Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-03 10:59:57.068SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Astrocode: a serious game for the development of computational thinking skills
title Astrocode: a serious game for the development of computational thinking skills
spellingShingle Astrocode: a serious game for the development of computational thinking skills
Bione, Javier
Ciencias Informáticas
Serious game
Computational thinking skills
3D Games
title_short Astrocode: a serious game for the development of computational thinking skills
title_full Astrocode: a serious game for the development of computational thinking skills
title_fullStr Astrocode: a serious game for the development of computational thinking skills
title_full_unstemmed Astrocode: a serious game for the development of computational thinking skills
title_sort Astrocode: a serious game for the development of computational thinking skills
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Bione, Javier
Miceli, Pablo
Sanz, Cecilia Verónica
Artola, Verónica
author Bione, Javier
author_facet Bione, Javier
Miceli, Pablo
Sanz, Cecilia Verónica
Artola, Verónica
author_role author
author2 Miceli, Pablo
Sanz, Cecilia Verónica
Artola, Verónica
author2_role author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Informáticas
Serious game
Computational thinking skills
3D Games
topic Ciencias Informáticas
Serious game
Computational thinking skills
3D Games
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Serious Games have been the focus of different research works in last years, as a consequence of their possibilities for educational scenarios. These games are used for purposes other than mere entertainment, but they are still motivating and attractive to users. More recent research works have also emphasized the potential of serious games for learning, skill acquisition, and attitude and behavior changes considering that they allow learners to experience situations that are impossible in the real world and provide engaging activities which are stimulating, generate strong emotions, require complex information processing, and provide challenges. On the other hand, programming teaching is a growing area that is spreading beyond computer science courses of studies. Computational Thinking (CT) is related to a problem solving process that involves a number of characteristics and skills such as applying abstraction and algorithms design. CT is important in computer applications, but it can also be used to support problem solving across all disciplines. Today, there is a growing corpus of experiences whose goals include CT skills development. This paper presents AstroCode, a serious game which is oriented to introduce players to CT skills such as algorithm design using variables and control structures. The description of the game and the test sessions held with different students of the National University of La Plata are detailed in this article. The first results show student engagement and motivation using these types of games in an educational scenario, as well as the difficulties they face in the use of control structures and how AstroCode helps students apply them.
Instituto de Investigación en Informática
description Serious Games have been the focus of different research works in last years, as a consequence of their possibilities for educational scenarios. These games are used for purposes other than mere entertainment, but they are still motivating and attractive to users. More recent research works have also emphasized the potential of serious games for learning, skill acquisition, and attitude and behavior changes considering that they allow learners to experience situations that are impossible in the real world and provide engaging activities which are stimulating, generate strong emotions, require complex information processing, and provide challenges. On the other hand, programming teaching is a growing area that is spreading beyond computer science courses of studies. Computational Thinking (CT) is related to a problem solving process that involves a number of characteristics and skills such as applying abstraction and algorithms design. CT is important in computer applications, but it can also be used to support problem solving across all disciplines. Today, there is a growing corpus of experiences whose goals include CT skills development. This paper presents AstroCode, a serious game which is oriented to introduce players to CT skills such as algorithm design using variables and control structures. The description of the game and the test sessions held with different students of the National University of La Plata are detailed in this article. The first results show student engagement and motivation using these types of games in an educational scenario, as well as the difficulties they face in the use of control structures and how AstroCode helps students apply them.
publishDate 2017
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2017
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
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