MUSCAT: In hopes of enhancing the education environment and bringing something new to make teaching interesting, a research study titled “Teaching Problem Solving Skills using an Educational Game in a Computer Programming Course” by principal investigator Dr Roy Mathew, Assistant Professor and Software Engineering Program Coordinator at Al Buraimi University College, utilizes a game to improve problem-solving skills among students in a programming course.
According to Dr Roy Mathew, problem solving skills are considered an important component in learning to program in an introductory programming (IP) course for novices. The research project therefore aimed to introduce a PROSOLVE game to enhance problem solving skills of novice programmers in the introductory programming course.
Dr Roy elaborated that the game is based on pseudo-code technique. The game covers most of the teaching topics of the IP course. Consequently, students practice the problem-solving skills throughout the course. A survey was employed to collect students’ feedback and semi-structured interviews were organized to collect instructors’ opinion about the game.
For the main findings, Dr Roy stated that the game helped most of the students in understanding the programming concepts, structures and problem-solving strategies. Moreover, the game supports students’ cognitive engagement, gains, and affective engagement in the IP course. Most of the students supported the idea that games should also be introduced in advanced courses of programming.
Dr Roy emphasized that instructors appreciated the game and considered it as an additional supporting teaching tool in the IP course. Students practice the problem-solving strategy for the whole semester because the game covers most of the teaching topics of the IP course. This process helps students to pay equal attention on the programming knowledge (syntax and semantics) and the problem-solving strategies. The instructors also considered the game as good alternative of traditional pen and paper learning approach in attracting students’ interest in the programming domain.
The PROSOLVE game brings fun and competition elements which attract more attention of students in the learning process. The game is web-based which helps students with finishing exercises at their own convenience and time. Students can collect points and win medals and cups for their correct solutions against the given problem statements. This process also urges students to practice more questions and acquires deep learning of the programming domain.
This research project was published in the journal Informatics in Education.
The research team consisted of Dr Roy Mathew, Assistant Professor and Software Engineering Program Coordinator at Al Buraimi University College, Dr. Sohail Iqbal Malik, Assistant Professor and Head of Information Technology Department at Al Buraimi University College, and Dr. Ragad Moufaq Tawafak, Assistant Professor and Computer Science Program Coordinator at Al Buraimi University College.
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