Games, Robots, and Robot Games

Complementary Contexts for Introductory Computing Education

Dianna Xu Bryn Mawr College Douglas Blank Bryn Mawr College Deepak Kumar Bryn Mawr College

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Computing in Context
Explore alternative ways of teaching introduction to computing courses by framing CS in a particular context:
Visualization Multimedia Robotics Gaming

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The Traditional CS Curriculum

It is often designed for the sole purpose of producing software engineers. It has a reputation of high stress level It also has a long tradition of an elitist attitude

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Crisis: Enrollment
Enrollments in Computer Science (PhD-granting Programs)

From: CRA Taulbee Survey Report 2005-06, March 6, 2007.

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Crisis: Interest in CS

Freshman interest in Computer Science has been declining.

From: Low Interest in CS and CE Among Incoming Freshmen, CRA Bulletin, 2/6/2007.

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Crisis: Gender

From: Computer Science Bachelors Degrees Granted to Women, CRA Bulletin, April 5, 2006.

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BMC Challenges
Small, all-women liberal arts College Long tradition of excellence in the humanities Virtually all of our majors are accidents Biggest challenge is to get them to take a first course in CS Preferably early

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We Need a New Intro

CS is more than just programming Providing context to the education gives motivation and its just more fun! We believe computing belongs in the core of a liberal arts education.

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Computing in Context: Robotics

The IPRE vision:
A ready-to-run personal robot The robot provides the intrinsic motivation to explore the science behind it

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The IPRE Philosophy

Let the needs of the curriculum drive the design of the materials Let the tasks of the context drive the motivation to learn Use tools that are easy to use, scale with experience Computer Science is not just programming

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The IPRE Philosophy

Create an accessible, engaging environment Make computing a social activity Make computing a medium for creativity

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Computing in Context: Gaming

Special topics course offered in 2005 and 2007 Accessible to a wide audience with no requirement of prior programming experience Enrollment was a mix of majors, avid gamers and fun seekers.

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Game Design
Make the course a more creative and social activity
Game co-tutorial Modifying poker Rapid games, theme-based games Game hacking The Boardgame test

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Game Development
Modern 3D games require
multi-million dollars of investment teams of well trained professionals across many disciplines years of hard work under harsh deadlines

Students implement only one level or one quest, as concept demonstration Constant battle of time
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Otis

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Lessons Learned
The dynamics were excellent with nonmajors Startling differences in male and female interests Significant student frustration over software and tools All found game development rather tedious

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A Gaming Context
A Game engine designed specifically for educational purposes
Pedagogically oriented Intended to be used in CS1 Object-oriented A 3D primitive library of good size and variety Modeling, texturing and animation tools designed to work together
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A Gaming Context
An in-context course needs an in-context textbook
Appropriate textbooks are very difficult to find Separate books on design and development More books on game engine and other tool sets

There are successful examples in other non-conventional intros

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The Gender Difference

An inherent obsession of making the computer more efficient and run faster Women want to know what a software can do for others (human beings) Women are more socially oriented Introducing gaming into the curriculum has a real danger of discouraging female enrollment

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Games and Robots

They have much in common in providing contexts for CS1 The final gaming project in the IPRE CS1 course at Bryn Mawr College using Myro
student game videos on youtube

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Thank you!

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