0 Wu's Castle

Experimental evaluation of an educational game for improved learning in introductory computing (Michael Eagle and Tiffany Barnes, UNC at Charlotte).

The objective of Wu's Castle is to create an army of snowmen using loops and arrays. The students program the" loops and arrays in an interactive, visual way. The game provides immediate feedback and helps students visualize code execution in a safe environment (from abstract)." The students also receive positive or negative feedback based on their performance.

Results (from pre to post test):

1. Students volunteered (may be biased)
2. Final exam was 54% higher
3. Average scores on post test were 66% higher than the pretest
4. Large effect size cohen's d > 1

Experiment - crossover or switching replications design and stratified sample. Group 1 played the game first then did traditional assignment, Group 2 did opposite. The experimental group did significantly better (as expected). Playing the game first was able to attract and maintain the students attention and help them to understand the code much better.

Gamers vs. non-gamers - gamers actually started of at a lower level that the other students, but (at the end) performed almost the same. Conclusion, students have higher learning gains when doing both the traditional assignment and Wu's Castle.

Is this game available online or publicly?