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Gamifying and Conveying Software Engineering Concepts for Secondary Education: An Edutainment Approach

Authors:
Roy Oberhauser

Keywords: software engineering education; software engineering games; game-based learning; digital games

Abstract:
Because of its abstract nature, software engineering faces image, perception, and awareness challenges that affect its ability to attract sufficient secondary school age students to its higher education programs. This paper presents an edutainment approach called Software Engineering for Secondary Education (SWE4SE), which combines short informational videos and a variety of simple digital games to convey certain SE concepts in an entertaining way. Our realization mapped various SE concepts to seven digital games, and results from an evaluation with secondary students showed that a significant improvement in the perception, attractiveness, and understanding of SE can be achieved within just an hour of play. Thus, we suggest that such an edutainment approach is economical, effective, and efficient for reaching and presenting SE within secondary school classrooms.

Pages: 432 to 437

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2015

Publication date: November 15, 2015

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4235

ISBN: 978-1-61208-438-1

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Dates: from November 15, 2015 to November 20, 2015