The Art of Software Design, a Video Game for Learning Software Design Principles
This is an incremental approach to enhancing software design education for students by gamifying curriculum elements.
The authors tackled the problem of teaching software design principles by developing a video game that trains students through interactive challenges with increasing complexity, and a user test indicated potential learning effects and a playable game.
This paper introduces our gamification of a part of our software design curriculum. Based on typical design principles a motivating learning game is developed to train students in software design. We use Bloom's taxonomy to determine learning objectives. We keep the player engaged with direct feedback in a challenging level based game with increasing complexity. Players can evaluate their design actions with the help of the visualisation of control and data flows. The main learning objective: applying design principles, fits the game's main activity. This supports the learning by doing approach of lecturers. A user test indicates possible learning effects and a playable game.