Communications - December 2009

edge of games or graphics from the faculty, 33 and have demonstrated it requires minimum changes to existing classes in order to successfully adopt these materials. Currently in the second phase of our project, we are building game-themed examples and tutorials designed to provide a pathway for interested faculty to gradually incorporate game-related materials into their existing courses. Our project is student-centric because our materials allow students to practice CS concepts in a more real-world-like context. More importantly, the materials are also fac-ulty-centric because these materials are the stepping-stones for faculty to begin experimenting with a promising new approach to teaching CS1/2 courses.

Games and Elective CS Courses

As highlighted earlier, the CS education community has a sound understanding of how to integrate visualization and interactivity in delivering CS1/2 content and has achieved impressive successes. In comparison, there is a relatively modest amount of work done in integrating computer games into existing traditional CS elective classes. This is not surprising as a successful systematic integration requires the delivery of an entire technical topic area to lend itself well in visualization and interactivity. There are anecdotal examples of using game content in delivering selective topic areas (for example, design patterns, 16, 27 or spatial search algorithms34). These are small-scale projects not meant to address entire courses as identified in the standard CS curriculum.

Artificial intelligence (AI), 9 software engineering (SE), 5, 10, 37 and computer graphics (CG) 36 are examples of elective courses where published results describe attempts at systematically integrating game development. In all of these cases, the stated student learning outcomes are similar to those from the typical CS curriculum and do not include competencies involved in game development as defined by the IGDA curriculum framework. In these classes, students study the core topic areas and implement games to demonstrate their understanding of the fundamental CS concepts. This work reported high student engagement and enthusiasm, while pointing out that the faculty

While it is the
case that proper
integration of game
development and
game content in CS
classes have the
potential to further
engage students
resulting in higher
success rates, it is
not the case that
any game content
will result in having
a positive impact.

members involved must develop large amounts of software infrastructure to facilitate and support students’ game development.

Notice that all three of these topic areas have significant overlaps with computer games in general: intelligent behavior (AI) is one of the most important attributes of modern games, SE methodologies are applicable in any software product development, and topics in CG are the conceptual framework for visualization in games. One can argue that for these topic areas, it is relatively straightforward to integrate game content in a consistent manner. In general, for topic areas that do not offer obvious overlaps with computer games or game development (for example, compiler or programming languages), dedication and creativity would be required to develop the elaborate infrastructure and to systematically integrate the new contents. In these cases, one should carefully examine the trade-offs between required efforts, expected benefits, and consider other perhaps more appropriate practical contexts (for example, popular applications on the Internet).

Guidelines for Consideration

While it is the case that proper integration of game development and game content in CS classes have the potential to further engage students resulting in higher success rates, it is not the case that any game content will result in having a positive impact. In addition, when exploring the potential for development or adoption of game content, we must work within the bounds of institutional oversights and be conscious about the expertise areas of faculty members. The following are some factors for consideration:

Institutional oversight. ˲ Departmental committee consensus is often required for significant changes to core courses. Because of the potential impact, it can be especially challenging to arrive at a consensus for modifications to introductory-level courses like CS1/2. A strategy is to design limited-curricu-lum-scope experiments to gain experience (and collect results) to assist the committee’s decision-making process.