Work in progress — Using a computer gaming strategy to facilitate undergraduates´ learning in a computer programming course: An experimental study

This study implemented and evaluated an educational computer game as a supplemental instructional method in a fundamental computer programming course. Twenty undergraduates who enrolled in a fundamental computer programming course for non-computer science majors participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to use one of two different supplemental instruction delivery methods for a three-week period of instruction. One group used an electronic quiz program and the other group used an educational computer game. Both methods used the same set of quiz bank and all quizzes were selected randomly by the applications. After the instructional treatments were implemented, students´ intrinsic motivation and final achievement scores were measured and analyzed. The result of the study indicated that students in the treatment group had positive attitude toward the educational computer game. Specifically, the students in the educational computer game group demonstrated higher intrinsic motivation and better achievement scores compared to the students in the control group.