Academic game development: practices and design strategies for creating STEM games

In the last decade, there has been an increase in legislation and funding that aims to get students in the United States interested in fields involving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in order to keep the United States competitive with other countries in these important academic areas. However, making these topics interesting and engaging to students has been challenging. A 2010 report by the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology concluded that schools in the United States lack passionate teachers and adequate tools to teach these subjects. Due to these deficiencies, ``too many American students conclude early in their education that STEM subjects are boring, too difficult, or unwelcoming, leaving them ill-prepared to meet the challenges that will face their generation, their country, and the world\u27\u27 (President\u27s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2010). Therefore, it could be surmised that something further needs to be done in order to promote these fields to students at a young age. The Meta!Blast project was developed to provide a medium that lends itself to the comprehension of cell and metabolic biology by placing the student into a virtual plant cell and allowing them to experience plant biology first-hand (Wurtele, 2011). By taking advantage of existing agile development methodologies, Meta!Blast has been designed to meet many of the challenges of developing video games in an academic environment. Using a special editor, educators and researchers can also modify in-game content in an effort to tailor the game to their specific curriculum needs. Due to the massive, explorative environment in which the game places players, Meta!Blast provides an ideal environment for a variety of other STEM-related mini-games. By leveraging existing methods of current software used to teach computer science, the initial development stage of a mini-game within Meta!Blast called TALUS (Technology Assisted Learning Using Sandbox) has been designed to let players experience different computer programming concepts. The first iteration has shown that an environment can be created that allows players to interact with actual computer code in a fail-safe and non-violent manner; furthermore, it has the potential to augment a player\u27s existing knowledge of computer programming

An Overview of the Redevelopment of a Computer Science Support Centre and the Associated Pedagogy Impacts

"Support Centres” are a form of intervention, particularly prevalent in Ireland and the UK through which undergraduate students interact with one or more tutors who help them with their studies. They primarily exist in the Mathematics and Computer Science fields. These centres tend to be remedial, in general aiming to improve the knowledge of struggling students, while also offering additional material to students looking for more of a challenge. The Computer Science Centre at Maynooth University is a drop-in tutoring service which provides free tutoring to students, primarily of programming modules, in the first and second year of their degree. This service has been running in our Computer Science department since 2012. In the 2019-2020 academic year, two full time tutors were hired to refocus and improve the centre. This resulted in the creation of a redevelopment plan and relaunch of the centre, which will be presented in this paper. The results of this redevelopment were very promising with the attendance of the centre increasing by over 800% compared to the 2018-2019 academic year. The students who did attend the centre also performed better on average than those students who did not attend the centre in their first-year undergraduate programming modules. An analysis of data relating to students visits to the centre will be presented and discussed. This paper discusses in detail the redevelopment within the centre and the work carried out by these tutors in their first year, while also presenting future plans for the centre. Guidelines are presented on managing an effective support centre (through our redevelopment plan and support methods), with the hope that more institutions in both Ireland and abroad will consider supporting their students with this methodology

Pasifika Tertiary Students' Use of Information and Communication Technologies

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are pervasive in our daily lives. In New Zealand tertiary education institutions, the adoption of ICT is widespread. Meanwhile, Pasifika students’ participation in tertiary education has been increasing. Yet, for this group of students, academic success has been a concern to successive governments, tertiary institutions, and Pasifika peoples. ICT may offer an opportunity to improve Pasifika students’ academic achievement. The study is premised on the belief that positive learning experiences will lead to improved academic outcomes. Consequently, the study explored ways of using ICT to enhance Pasifika students’ learning experiences. Adopting an interpretivist approach, the case study investigated the ICT skills and the use of ICT for learning enhancements of a group of Pasifika students at a New Zealand institute of technology. Over a period of eighteen months, data was gathered through talanoa, participant observation, and the researcher’s reflective journal. The three method approach enabled data triangulation. Data analysis adhered to the theoretical propositions of the study. Among the key findings, is the disturbing realization that Pasifika students’ ICT skill levels were not at the level assumed by the institution. The main uses of ICT by the Pasifika students in this study were for personal communication and entertainment. The students’ use of ICT for educational purposes was limited due to the mismatch of their ICT skills and those required by the institution. Inadvertently, this has further disadvantaged the students’ learning experiences. The study concludes by offering an ICT skills development framework for use with Pasifika students. Moreover, the study proposes a number of recommendations for practice, policy, and further research