Authors:
Amalia Duch
;
Jordi Petit
;
Enric Rodríguez-Carbonell
and
Salvador Roura
Affiliation:
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
Keyword(s):
Data Structures, Algorithms, Computer Game, Computer Game’s Player, Programming.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Computer-Supported Education
;
e-Learning
;
e-Learning Hardware and Software
;
e-Learning in Engineering Education
;
e-Learning Platforms
;
e-Learning Success Cases
;
Information Technologies Supporting Learning
;
Learning/Teaching Methodologies and Assessment
;
Pedagogy Enhancement with e-Learning
;
Project Based Learning and Engineering Education
;
Simulation and Modeling
;
Simulation Tools and Platforms
;
Technology Enhanced Learning
;
Ubiquitous Learning
;
Web-Based Learning, Wikis and Blogs
Abstract:
We report our experience of including the implementation of a player of a computer game as a programming project in a CS2 course focusing in data structures and algorithms. Every semester, an instructor designs the rules of a game, prepares its visualization, and implements an elementary player with a very simple strategy. The game is then delivered to students who, as a first step in order to pass the project, must program a player that wins the elementary player. Then, a tournament begins among all the students with accepted players. At every round of this tournament a player is eliminated until just one player, the champion, survives. Grades for this assignment are computed automatically and increasingly with respect to the round where students have been eliminated. The result is a fun and very motivating programming experience for our students.