sCool – Game-Based Learning in Computer Science Class: A Case Study in Secondary Education

• Main Authors: Alexander Steinmaurer, Johanna Pirker, Christian Gütl
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE) 2019-04-01
• Series: International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP)
• Subjects: Game Based Learning; Computational Thinking; STEM; sCool
• Online Access: https://online-journals.org/index.php/i-jep/article/view/9942

In this paper we present a case study of the mobile learning game sCool [1]. Based on previous work presented Steinmaurer et. al. (2018) [2] we expand-ed our study by a second experiment and additional aspects. sCool is a mul-ti-platform game that should encourage children learning computational thinking and coding in Python. The learning content is highly adaptable; therefore, educators can create own courses, individual for the needs of the students. These courses involve a concept-learning and a practical mode. First, the students learn a certain concept and in a second step, they have to apply it in a practical task. For this purpose, we created a course to teach some basic programming concepts. Two student groups of different school types participated in class as a formal learning activity. In this paper we pre-sent the results of the evaluation of sCool in coding classes. Therefore, we focus on the performance, game engagement, emotions and the girls’ percep-tion. Within this study we found out, that the students are interested in learn-ing to code but do have problems to transfer the learned content to similar fields. We also found out, that there are slightly differences in the perfor-mance of the different types of students in terms of gender and school type.