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Computational thinking Practiced with a Casual Serious Game in Higher Education Adilson Vahldick1,2,António José Mendes2,Maria José Marcelino2,Paulo Roberto Farah1 1

High Education Centre Vale do Itajaí (CEAVI) State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC) - Ibirama, SC - Brazil 2

CenterInformatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra (CISUC) University of Coimbra - Portugal {adilson.vahldick, paulo.farah}@udesc.br {toze, zemar}@dei.uc.pt

Abstract. in this paper we discuss the importance for students in introductory courses of undergraduate programming begin their learning with developing skills thinking Computer (PC). Due to time constraints in the semester, it is difficult for teachersprovide this opportunity through specific authoring environments, like Alice and Scratch. For this reason, a serious casual game was created to support the development of these skills. Casual games are characterized by short, quick missions, and this can be favorable as extracurricular activities. An evaluation cycle has been completed in an undergraduate course and another is in progressanother course. The details of the game, from its use, the opinion of the students and the opinion of the teacher are presented in this article. The main contribution of this paper islist some principles that can assist in the development of games for the programming learning through tasks with PC. Abstract. This paper discusses the importance to Develop Computational Thinking (CT) skills in undergraduate introductory programming courses. Due to time constraints, it is hard for teachers Provide this opportunity specific authoring environments through, like Alice and Scratch. For this reason, it was created to casual serious game to support the development of These skills. Casual games are Characterized by fast and short missions, and this can be favorable extra classes activities. An evaluation cycle was finished in an undergraduate course and another is underway. The details of the game, the opinion of students and the teacher are presented in this article. The main contribution of this work is to list some principles que supports the development of games for learning through programming tasks with CT.

1. Introduction The games are easy and fun interactive experiences. Usually do not require training or foreign aid, unless the comments of the people who enjoyed playing (Prensky, 2001). The game-based learning(GameBased Learning - GBL) is an alternative in which students can learn in a personalized way (the game follows the evolution of the player) and assisted self (the player realizes his mistakes by failing the missions, or game teaches the player howperform some action) (Whitton, 2010). Serious games (or educational) provide a relevant context that helps make abstract concepts more concrete (Eagle & Barnes, 2009). Using a game naturally

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involves problem solving activities (Schell, 2008). It is precisely the failure to appropriation of the problem solving ability that results in the largest failure in learning programming (Robins et al., 2003). The programming learning is a process that requires profound cognitive changes and development in the mastery of skills complex (Gomes & Mendes, 2007). Writing programs involves understanding the problem and abstracting a model, divide the problem into smaller parts, decide the best strategy to solve each of the parties, and apply or adapt already known solutions (Winslow, 1996). The skills and competences (abstraction, decomposition, analysis, etc.) to perform this process is described as Computational Thinking (PC) (Wing, 2008). Research for the PC learning has been focused on basic education (France & Tedesco, 2015) due to the possibility to aggregate it with other disciplines such as mathematics and biology. Although there are several games available for practice and programming learning and PC (Vahldick et al., 2014), there are gaps for the sustainability of the teaching-learning process. These games do not cover in depth the issues in the discipline, nor provide a monitoring system of student progress. This article discusses the advantages of PC learning in higher education in introductory courses in programming and has the experience of using a serious casual game to promote this learning. Casual games require very few instructions to learn how to play them (Kadle, 2009). For educational purposes, this characteristic favors for the student to focus more on instructional tasks to spend your time in learning the mechanics and other game elements (Landers & Callan, 2011). The article describes the game as to their elements and instructional design. The work is structured as follows: in the second section is the importance justified the use of blocks for programming learning in higher education; the third sectionbased on the use of games programming and PC learning; in the fourth section the game developed in research is presented; Thursday experiments are described in the game; on Friday the results of these experiments; and finally are made the conclusions about the results.

2. Blocks for the programming of learning in higher education It has been observed failure in the ability to solve problems in subjects like math and science in high school youth (Grover & Pea, 2013). Teach computer skills in Brazilian basic education has been the challenge and research to try to alleviate this situation (France & Tedesco, 2015). Regarding the PC approach to teaching in undergraduate courses, there are proposals for mathematics disciplines to mitigate the high levels of tax evasion and failure in such disciplines (Barcelos et al., 2015). These proposals are still recent efforts and isolated. Several generations of freshmen never had contact with this knowledge, which can be appreciated in Table 1 where 66.7% corroborate this argument. This table shows the demographic data from two experiments, described below, that involved 96 students infirst semester of undergraduate courses. Reproaches and evasions are high in introductory courses in programming. One of the serious problems of students is abstraírem the notion of how the machine interprets a program (Du Boulay, 1986). To support the development of this notion of abstract machine, the strategy adopted by educational programming environments like Alice and Scratch is that students start with evidence and gradually be conducted to understand the abstract aspects of computing (Dann & Cooper, 2009). In these types of environments the student practice and develops the construction of computational solutions through

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concrete elements. To achieve this solution is necessary to perform troubleshooting tasks, and so practice and learn abstraction, decomposition and analysis, which are essential skills for writing computer programs. These environments use a visual language based on the construction of programs using blocks(Block-BasedProgramming - BBP). These blocks physically represent the programming languages of commands which makes easier the initiation of beginners students and keep them attracted to the task (Weintrop & Wilensky, 2015). In addition, the animations act as a natural tool for debugging, showing step-apasso program execution and the state of variables.

3. Games asmeans to practice computational thinking Alice and Scratch are authoring environments, ie, allow the student freely build your solution. These environments are rich in resources and opportunities, however, take time for the studentdevelop the programs. Its adoption in the course of introducing programming requires that consume hours / class of the menu that were planned in the course for solving educational problems with a real programming language. Games have been used in education to introduce and reinforce concepts and to practice as an alternative to traditional exercises (Whitton, 2010). The biggest challenge is to maintain self-esteem and motivation for studentsinsist to try and win the game. However, the fun allows the studentperform its easiest tasks, even when requires more effort (Prensky, 2001). The main factor to promote the programming learning is that the student disciplined practice intensively (Robins et al., 2003). However, often lack motivation to get involved in these tasks. The practice in solving the problems in the games, which are more motivating than traditional exercise, builds confidence and experience, building a structured set of solutions patterns, which will be very useful when you encounter problems using programming languages real (Barnes et al., 2007). the casual games share this idea to have a few goals in tasks. The player is encouraged to quickly overcome the missions and stay involved with the game. The rewards with victories can be converted into new powers, customization of your character, or points to rank it a ranking among other players (Trefry, 2010). For education, casual games can be useful because, in addition to ease of use, and few tasks to keep the player always motivated, they provide feedback, immediate mission replayability to allows you to upgrade and test new possibilities, and are easy to be installed or run on browser (Landers & Callan, 2011).

4. game NoBug's Snack Bar Considering the benefits and opportunities set out in sections 2 and 3, was developed a game for learning and practice of PC techniques. The game mechanics are inspired by the casual game time management. In this type of game, the tasks are divided into sequential steps in which the player must fulfill them within a time limit (Trefry, 2010). The game context is based on a cafeteria. The player controls the employee and the game controls customers perform applications. The employee shares are: ask the customer what he wants to eat and / or drink, go to the machines prepare or pick up food and / or drink, charge the customer's account, give him back his change, and talk (print messages on screen). This small set of actions allows us to develop a vast range of missions. Some missions are inspired by traditional exercises such as calculation of totals, averages, lowest and highest values.

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All official actions are programmed with blocks. To exemplify a mission, Figure 1a illustrates the solution and Figure 1b shows the area of the cafeteria for this mission. This is a mission that have not yet learned the repetition structures, so duplicate blocks appear. Following step-by-step the blocks of Figure 1a: the attendant goes to the customer position 1 and if it is established then performs a set of blocks that asks what you want to drink, go to the refrigerator, takes the drink back customer and delivering the drink. After the attendant goes to the 3 position and performs the same actions for that customer.

(a)

(b)

Figure 1. (a) blocks to solve the mission; (b) the cafeteria area

The game environment is shown in Figure 2. At the center is the work area where the student builds your solution; the left is the entertainment area with the buttons to run, debug, stop and control the animation speed, in addition to the cafeteria animation of the area is reflected as the solution is being performed; right variables are presented when the student debugs your solution. At the top there is a frame with three stars, which refers to the scoring system in the mission. The player starts with three stars when you enter the first time on a mission. Each star corresponds to a number of points. The figure illustrates that each star is worth 30 points and the player has lost a star. Consumption of stars can vary between missions, but there are two ways: (1) by time or (2) attempts. Even if all the stars have been consumed, there is a motivation score, which is much smaller, but it is guaranteed to the player when finalizing the mission. The visits by time (1) is given a deadline to complete it. Each third of this periodequivalent to a star. When terminating the time, all the stars are consumed, but the player continues the mission to complete, and then receive a score of motivation. All missions attempts (2), as illustrated in Figure 2, there is an attempts counter nextthe stars. Each time the student starts a run or debug, is consumed a try. It can be seen that the player has consumed four attempts: three for the first star and another attempt in the second star.

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Figure 2. Game Environment

The game features three rankings ordering students by score (1), the total time taken to perform the tasks (2) and the total number of attempts (3). Moreover, as the student will accumulate points options are released to customize your avatar:.Eye color, style and color hair / mustache, color, style and color of hat and color of the clothes the teacher can monitor the performance of students in two ways:consulting their achievements, or the situation of students in the missions. The game has a system of achievements, or rewards in providing medals to the student in some situations defined by the teacher, for example, finish all the missions of a phase within a deadline. Figure 3 shows the screen used by the teacher to check the status of students. Each square represents a mission and indicates how many students are in it. By clicking on the mission students are listed with their number of attempts and time spent in the mission. The teacher can refer to each attempt response and contribute to the student by sending him an e-mail or even discussing the issue in class.

Figure 3. Teacher Administration area

5. Methods, materials and participants The investigative process in game development consists mainly of two evaluation cycles in computer science in undergraduate courses. In the first 60 students participated for two months in a Portuguese university. The second cycle began on 26/02/2016 and is underway with 36 students in a Brazilian university. The sample is described in Table 1.

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Most of the Portuguese sample are women between 18 and 19 years without gambling habit. Most of the Brazilian sample is male under 18. Two extremes tied with greater frequency in this sample compared to playing habits: those who play every day and those who do not usually play. Moreover, as discussed in Section 2, the majority of the population never had previous contact with algorithms or programming. Table 1. Demographic data of the participants Age

Sex

22 Portugal (36.7%) 31 Brazil (86.1%) 53 Total (55.2%)

38 9 (63.3%) (15.0%)

Often playing

(51.7%3 (2033 19 11 8 22 1) .3%) (31.7%) (18.3 %) (13.3%) (37.7%)

Previous knowledge

36 23 (60.0%) (38.3%)

1 (1.7%)

0 (0.0%)

5 17 10 9 (13.9%) (47.2%) (27.8%) (25.0%)

12 10 2 12 (33.3%) (27.8%) (5.6%) (33.3%)

28 7 (77.8%) (19.4%)

1 (2.8%)

0 (0.0%)

43 26 41 29 (44.8%) (27.1%) (42.7%) (30.2%)

31 21 10 34 (32.3%) (21.9%) (10.4%) (35.4%)

64 30 (66.7%) (31.2%)

2 (2.1%)

0 (0.0%)

the game is available on a web server (http://nobugssnackbar.dei.uc.pt/) and students could play it at any time directly in your browser. In both cycles the game was used as an extracurricular activity: students played outside of class time, and advised to play before the related in room subjectphases.. the cycle in Portugal were developed 55 missions were thrown into grouped series in Each phase was related to a subject: command sequence, variable manipulation, conditional, cycles, arrays and functions. There was no connection in the classroom with the game and not any kind of grading in relation to the discharge of their duties. The observations and conclusions cycle in Portugal fomented changes in elements of the game in instructional aspects and integration with the curriculum. As for the cycle in Brazil, yet it was developed 48 missions (some reusedthe previous experiment) with the command sequence matters, variable manipulation, conditional structures and cycles. The instructional sequence of phases (Figure 4) followed a pattern that offers more opportunities to the student.

Figure 4. Sequence of phases in the second cycle

The stages were classified into three levels of difficulty: (1) introductory covering superficially all the basic content of a subject; (2) improvement in deepening the subject; and (3) domain consists of missions that challenge with complex and restrictive situations (eg, command limit and / or variables). The introductory phases are prerequisites of each other, and the processing stages and domain. For example, if the student completes phase 2, it can decide to play freely between the layers 3, 4, or 5. The learning process in the phases was also reviewed. The amount of missions is reduced in each stage. The types of tasks to be performed in each mission was inspired by the

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cognitive development proposed in Bloom's Taxonomy (Ferraz & Belhot, 2010). Table 2 shows the relationship between each category of cognitive domain the type of task in the missions. The introductory and improvement phases have approximately eight missions, following the sequence of categories, but varying in their distribution. For example, one phase can start with two missions of knowledge and understanding. Then switch between two application and analysis. These phases always end with a mission synthesis category. The domain stages have fewer missions (around four) and do not follow this sequence. Table 2. Relationship between the categories of cognitive domains of Bloom's Taxonomy and the types of tasks missions Categories 1. Knowledge 2. Understanding

3. Application 4.analysis: 5. Synthesis

Types of Jobs Correct mistakes: it provided the solution with errors. The student must change the variable being referenced, trade comparison or logical operators, exchange position blocks or insert new blocks. Arrange blocks: all blocks are available around the desktop and the student must arrange them in the correct sequence. Building starting with suggestions: are provided some blocks that can be the beginning, the end or central part of the solution. The student creates the solution by entering new blocks, to complete the missing part. Building the student creates their solution from scratch. Building with restrictions:.Jobs have restrictions on the amount of used blocks,number of times that can be useda particular block, and / or the amount of variables that can be used

to improve the curriculum integration, a system was developed to accomplishments: the student receives a badge when you finish a stage before a date set by the teacher. In return, the student receives subsidies in the note of an assessment (test / test). In addition, the teacher uses examples of the game (stud design or solutions) in the introductory classes of matters of disciplineexperiments:. There are still three other significant differences between the Have improved the user interface and the quality of the images (Figures 1 and 2 are the second experiment), the way to provide feedback and to consume stars. In the first experiment, during the mission, the game provided many tips for students overcome their difficulties and resolve the errors. The consumption of the stars in the missions was in all the time. In the second experiment, the consumption of the stars is often by trial. The game just does not provide tips. In contrast, a new feature that displays the answer in Portuguese structured in missions like "build" the introductory stages and further training was developed. The cost to use this feature isconsume all the stars of the mission.

6. Results The first aspect is rated as the dedication and interest of students in the game. For this, the amount of students who completed the missions were compared. Figure 5 shows the results between the two experiments respectively. Figure 5a shows only the first 19 missions because from this the only two students went ahead and completed the game. Figure 5b shows the frequency of students in all missions in which a student has already completed. The last two missions graph correspond to phase 8 available the day before the writing of this article. As there is a certain freedom in stages in playing, you can see that the mission has 23 fewer graduating students that later. The mission 23 is the last stage 4, which is a domain phase manipulation in the subject variables.

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(The)

(B)

Figure 5. Relationship between students and missions completed in the experiment (a) and Portuguese (b) Brazil

The second aspect evaluated in the Brazilian experience was as the opinions of students in learning perceived by them. After students complete three phases, the game provides a survey with six questions inscale Likert (1-completely disagree to completely 5concordo). Figure 6 shows the distribution of responses of 26 students (72.2%) who responded to the survey.

Figure 6. Learning perceived by students

The third aspect evaluated verified as the resource to display the results in structured Portuguese was intensely used and may represent a disability in the instructional process. 15 missions (31.3%) have this feature. This set of missions completed 380 times and the resource was used 40 times (10.5%). The last aspect assessed was the perception of the teacher in relation to the behavior of students. Accordinghim,"thestudents quickly connect the content that we are seeing inroom with the concepts previously seen in the game. Asteacher I had the impression that most students had sense of what I was explaining and even risked more advancedquestions."Discussion

7. of results There are several investigations on the development of PC skills in basic education. However, there is a gap in the research consonants audience of higher education, and as presented in this work, most of that audience is not familiar with the subject. In this article we presented a casual game to practice the PC concepts. The game was developed and evolved through a trial for two months with 60 undergraduate students in a Portuguese university. The results of this experiment proposed changes in the game and in the way

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they use. A new ongoing experiment is being conducted in an undergraduate course at a Brazilian university. The threeweek experiment showed advances in motivation to play and the attitudes and behavior of students in the classroom. The main contribution of this article to the development of serious games in education programming is on the instructional design and curriculum integration. The way the proposal phase sequence was organized in the second experiment disponibilizava the student a larger set of missions to play. This influenced so that the student did not stop play if he was having trouble winning a mission. In order to drive consistently, clearly and concisely the teaching process, the instructional sequence within phase followed Bloom's Taxonomy that defined the types of tasks each mission. According to the opinion of the students, they believed they were learning from the game (Figure 6). This feeling has to be confirmed with the teacher's judgment noted greater confidence and self-esteem in students, about to relate these attitudes with students of the second half. We believe that a component that helped the motivation to keep playing is the integration of the game with discipline, is the didactic issue when using the play blocks and problems in introductory classes, either in relation to being subsidized with extra points innext assessment. Another indication that students are learning is the use of a resource to display the results in structured Portuguese. The feature consumes all the scoring the mission. In 31.3% of the missions is offered this feature. However, it was only used in 10.5% of the time that studentscompleted these missions. The use of the game to practice the PC in the introductory programming course allowed more concretely that students learn abstract concepts of programming. Develop the solution with blocks avoided problems with syntax and facilitated the composition of more complex structures such as conditionals and repetitions. The integrated animation solution to allow studentsobserve the result of each command and realize the notion of sequential machine. Most students still arrive at college with no contact PC. The game madeeasier for studentslearn concepts PC before reaching the same subject in class. The advantage in Higher Education in using the game rather than an environment like Scratch or Alice is allowing more learning opportunities to students without spend specific classes for this, and so the teacher continue fulfilling the original menu of discipline.

Thanks AV thanks the stock doctorate supported by CNPq / CAPES - Science without Borders Program - CsF (6392-13-0) and removal authorization UDESC (688/13). The authors also thank the availability of teachers and students involved in the experiment.

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