Thursday, June 27
2:35-2:55 PM
CEST
Oud West

Pair-Programming of video games at a secondary level classroom - concept and case study

Brief Paper ID: 55279
  1. aaa
    Arash Issaee
    University of Vienna
  2. aaa
    Renate Motschnig
    University of Vienna
  3. aaa
    Oswald Comber
    University of Vienna
  4. aaa
    David Haselberger
    University of Vienna

Abstract: In the era of digitalization, learning to code and to think computationally has become a key competence. However, the path and the learning environments to develop competences for coding and computational thinking at various levels of school education and various degrees of specialization (engineering school vs schools of general education) have to be chosen thoroughly. While simple graphic block based languages lead to fast progress, their functionality is limited and the transition to text-based languages tends to be elaborate and effortful. Pair-programming comes from the industry and has its roots in the agile method of Extreme Programming. In the context of software development in industry pair-programming was confirmed to be effective. Following the successful appliance in industry for particular software development scenarios, pair-programming found its way to CS education in graduate courses and also to K12 education. The research question we pose is whether pair-programming is also applicable in the context of learning to program in secondary (K9) classrooms. The present case study aims to explore the setting, procedure, advantages, and limitations of pair-programming computer games among 14-15 year-old-students in a computer science class. According to the students’ surveys both in questionnaire form and with a structured focus group, students prefer pair-programming to individual work. They appreciate the collaborative setting in which they can consult each other.

Presider: Arash Issaee, University of Vienna

Topic

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