PyPOV: Investigating Student Engagement in Educational Programming Games

Introductory programming is a common point of attrition for students looking to study Computer Science. Part of this problem is that students struggle to maintain engagement with introductory programming. Game-based learning systems have been introduced, in recent years, as a means of maintaining student engagement. However, game-based learning systems as tools to motivate student engagement in introductory programming have seen largely positive, yet mixed results. While it is broadly established that game-based learning can be an effective tool to increase student motivation and learning, there is a lack of research into the impact of genre or specific game elements on the effectiveness of GBL software. This research seeks to provide such an investigation by evaluating the impact that specific game elements have on student engagement in educational games designed to teach introductory programming. Two studies were conducted, one focusing on first-person and puzzle elements, and the other on narrative elements.  Though limited by a small testing sample size, the results are positive, suggesting that the studied elements can be used to increase student engagement in educational programming games