Virtual reality instructional modules for introductory programming courses

Abstract

Undergraduate students may find computer science to be a tough subject to learn. Students might not grasp concepts with traditional teaching methods, even if they are ideal. Likewise, instructors could also find computer science hard to teach. This predicament could lead to poor academic performance for students as well as students not possessing adequate programming skills needed for software development careers. Gamification is the application of game-like elements to non-gaming activities used to encourage people to participate in those activities and achieve specific goals. Emerging research proves the effectiveness of gamification in academia, especially in the computer science realm. Thus, we have built two gaming modules for teaching object-oriented programming (OOP) and binary search. This paper discusses the design, development, and testing of virtual reality instructional (VRI) modules based on gaming metaphors. Constructivism and usability were considered while developing them. A user study found that about 75% of undergraduate students found the OOP module was easy to use and about 92% of them thought that it is effective at helping them learn OOP.