Gamification of problem solving process based on logical rules

Abstract

One of the main elements of the modern educational process in the field of IT is the solution of logical-combinatorial problems. When solving such problems, learners need to build a new solution based on the set of basic operations studied before being combined according to certain rules. To consolidate these skills, leaner need to solve a reasonable number of problems that leads to need of verification of a huge number of solutions. Many systems allow us to automate the verification of solutions. In most cases, these systems check pure answer only, but not the progress of the solution itself. Such a method of verification does not exclude the possibility of obtaining the correct answer and the credited task with an incorrect or inconsistent solution. We propose a method for verifying the solution of problems, based on search of valid transformations, or stepwise refinements, similar to search for proof in logical calculi. This means that, the system at each step effectively sorts out all possible transformations, trying to find one that the learner applied. In this case, the system not only can find an error in the solution, but also indicate the source of this error, which is wrong transition between steps. In addition to automatically verifying the solutions, this approach allows us to generate tasks that require the application of specific rules. Also the application of the rules can be interpreted as “moves” in the intellectual game. Then the solution of the problem turns into a game process, and the correct solution corresponds to a sequence of steps leading to the victory in the game. The proposed approach was tested on students of the junior courses and showed good results. Namely, in the conducted experiments the efficiency of the teacher’s work when checking solutions increased more than 4 times.