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ODYSSEY OF PHOENIX COMPUTER GAME AS LEARNING TOOL FOR
DeTAR Putra, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
73 word quest appearing underneath the area icon. The major areas are 3 jetties, Crystal Cave, Abandoned Warehouse, Bandit Cave, Underground Min, and Bandit Cave.
In order to ensure the learning outcome can be achieved via the gameplay and in game mechanics, it is necessary to align the learning outcomes and in game mechanics appropriately. The proposed game is adapting Biggs’
constructive alignment (Bigg’s, 1996) to align the gameplay with learning outcomes.
There are two major ideas from constructive alignment from Bigg’s (Bigg’s, 1996) are shown below:
• how to get students engage in learning activities that are likely to enable them to attain intended outcomes
• how to set up a learning environment that supports the learning activities
According to Prensky (2007), in order to achieve constructive alignment, the intended learning outcomes (observable behaviour, degree of attainment and conditions of attainment) should be aligned to structural elements (rule, goal and feedback) of games proposed. Tables below show the constructive alignment of intended Learning Outcomes and game elements of the proposed game.
Figure 1.0 In-game Class Structure in Pseudo code and Class Hierarchy Quest 2 Outcome of extraction and alignment
Extracting components of Learning Outcome
Observable behaviour:
Understand class creation with inheritance hierarchy structure …
Condition of attainment:
… that include attribute,
constructors and
methods …
Degree of Attainment:
… to understand all the class structure in pseudo code Setting
elements of game
Goal:
Complete the hierarchy chart
Rules of play:
… by completing all the required parts, e.g. collect required material;
Feedback:
Victory – show debrief that explains attainment
Mission fail – try again Alignment of
Learning Outcome components
& game elements
Intended observable behaviour that abide rules of play:
obtain and analysing the given class and the inheritance hierarchy structure
defeat the enemies to obtain the required material fail to defeat the enemies will result to minus the avatar health point
Victory debriefing:
Collect all the parts successfully can be achieved based on the ability of the player to collect the right amount of material by defeating all the enemies Table 1.0 Constructive Alignment 1
Background of the innovation
Most existing games to learn programming, such as Alice 2D, Greenfoot, and CodeCombat, require students to play with programming coding exercises (Wong, Yatim, Tan, 2016). However, the proposed game-based learning game focuses on the game play and game mechanics to carry out the learning objective, where no coding exercise type of game play is needed. For example, CodeCombat (Vahldick, Mendes, Marcelino, 2014) requires a player to use script languages, such as JavaScript, Lua, and phyton, in order to progress through a small story or compete against other players.
DeTAR Putra, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
74 Figure 2.0 In-game coding exercises – Code Combat
For the second example, Alice is a 3-dimentional interactive animation program visualisation environment that will enable the typing of Java code to build Alice world (Vahldick, Mendes, Marcelino, 2014).
Figure 2.0 In-Game Coding Exercises - Alice
Meanwhile, Greenfoot (Mullins, Conlon, 2008) is an educational development environment based on Java programming, where the use of text-based programming based on Java makes very sophisticated applications possible, matching students high expectations and preparing them for progression into a more general programming environment (Kolling,2012).
Figure 3.0 In-Game Coding Exercises – Greenfoot
Most of the programming game mentioned require coding exercises, thus it is necessary to develop propriety game- based learning games to learn object-oriented programming without coding exercises.
Importance to education.
Objective:
• to reduce the complexity of learning object-oriented programming for first year computer science degree student
• to increase the efficiency of learning object-oriented programming via game-based learning approach
• to visualize objects in a role-playing game to increase the interaction between learners and the game Value Added:
• Developed according to game-based learning approach, where adequate learning content is well structured with in-game mechanics.
• Feedback and responses are presented to the learner via appropriate dialogues.
• 8 puzzle quests are provided to construct efficient learning experience for the learner.
DeTAR Putra, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
75 Usefulness
• increase learner interest, courage, and determination in learning and understanding object-oriented programming
• suitable for novice learners whose first time learning object-oriented programming
• no syntax memorizing and coding exercises required
• Linking learners’ interest and motivation to the game-based learning context Advantages of the innovation
Odyssey of Phoenix is the first mobile game that is designed through a cooperation between computer science professionals and game developers for university student to learn the importance of object-oriented programming paradigm that highly demanded in IT industry. This game contains two game worlds with several challenging and interesting quests (for each game world) which reflect the consequences of decisions made by the student when overcoming in-game challenges and completing in-game quests. The mobile game is designed for them to learn object-oriented programming paradigm such as class, object, encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism. The unique mechanics of Odyssey of Phoenix (OOP) allows players who played the game can learn object-oriented programming paradigm via the game play without any coding or syntax exercises.
Odyssey of Phoenix (OOP) can be played by university student aged between 18 and 22 years old to acquire knowledge and intellectual skills related to object-oriented programming and the important of this programming paradigm as well as improving their computational thinking. Lecturers and tutors from IPTA or IPTS can use the game as teaching and learning tools to help their student understand the OOP content and the learning objective easily.
The in-game challenges and quests can be used to direct students to establish the concept of object-oriented programming effectively. With the use of mobile game, less paper-based training materials would be needed for learning object-oriented programming, thus reducing the consumption of papers. Besides that, this mobile game also can reduce the electronic waste as well.
Commercial value
Odyssey of Pheonix (OOP) is published at Google Play Store and it can be downloaded for free. The full version will be published at Google Play Store and Apply App store for USD0.99, in which it is distributed throughout the world. Players can play the game on tablets or smartphones. In terms of marketing, the game will be featured in a game-based learning portal based in USA. A dedicated website is created to promote Odyssey of Pheonix (OOP) at http://goo.gl/RDnRYk. Besides that, promotion video had been uploaded to youtube channel at https://youtu.be/FlmNh2rJmus.
Acknowledgement
This study has been supported financially and technically by KDU University College, Sultan Idris Education University and Taylors University Malaysia. The researcher would like to extend the gratitude to all the parties that participated in this study
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