Learning computational thinking through gamification and collaborative learning

Abstract

Computational thinking (CT) is becoming a growing field in educational research and practice. CT is not only related to coding or programming, but also a fundamental skill for everyone to solve problems effectively and efficiently with solutions that are reusable in different contexts, which helps to improve our analytical ability for different tasks. Therefore, parents are eager to enroll their children in children programming courses. This paper presents the design of a web-based game for learning computational thinking anywhere and anytime. It has a visual programming environment for programming virtual robot to complete specific tasks. Our game levels are designed to cover the following five core elements of CT: reformulation, recursion, decomposition, abstraction and systematic testing. The game also supports collaborative learning, in which some game levels involve multiple robots to be programmed by multiple players at the same time. A survey on twenty undergraduate computer science students showed that our game requires the application of the above five core elements of CT to complete, and is likely to be an attractive learning tool for learners including primary students.