Anvik, John

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Program wars v.2.0 : improving a game-based learning approach for teaching fundamental programming concepts
(ACM, 2024) Tareque, Md. Hasan; Deutekom, Steven; Anvik, John; Bashir, Maimoona
Game-based learning (GBL) provides an engaging way to introduce those with limited programming experience to fundamental pro- gramming concepts, Program Wars uses a GBL approach to teach fundamental programming concepts using cards that represent in- structions, loops, variables and methods to create a programming language-independent program. This paper introduces Program Wars v.2.0, which improves the prior implementation in several ways. These changes include the approach to teaching methods, introducing players to the concepts of searching and sorting algorithms, and revisions to the gameplay and UI to improve engagement. A user study of Program Wars v.2.0 was conducted and shows that Program Wars v.2.0 is more effective than Program Wars v.1.0 in teaching the concepts of variables, loops and methods. Specifically, 60% of participants showed knowledge improvements of variables, 56% showed knowledge improvements for loops, and 44% showed knowledge improvements for methods. Qualitative results show that Program Wars ’s game-based approach results in an engaging experience for learners.