Engaging students with visual impairments in engineering and computer science through robotic game programming (research-to-practice)

Abstract

This paper presents an approach for engaging students with visual impairments to learn computer programming through our multi-modal feedback system and carefully devised curriculum using a robotic platform. Our goal of research is to promote precollege students' interests in the fields of engineering such as computer science and robotics. The multi-modal feedback system includes multiple haptic and auditory signals that are designed to transfer distinctly defined messages during the robot's actions. The curriculum consists of a set of task-based tutorials for learning basic programming functions to control the robot, as well as intriguing challenge activities such as games. This system and curriculum have been deployed in five camps for middle and high school students with visual impairments over four different cities over two years. We explain the details of our system and the activities during the camps, and present the results that show positive impacts of our approach in students' interest in computer science and robotics. ©American Society for Engineering education, 2013.