TY - GEN
T1 - Syntax circuitry
T2 - 2015 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE 2015
AU - Shellington, W. A.
AU - Humphries, T. O.
AU - Morsi, R.
AU - Rizvi, Mona A.E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IEEE.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/12/2
Y1 - 2015/12/2
N2 - According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [1], computer science professions are among the fastest growing occupations in the U.S., and computer science occupations will add more than half a million new jobs in the next ten years. Simultaneously, universities in the U.S. and worldwide are seeing poor retention rates in computer science, with a major reason being that students often view the early courses in the subject as uninteresting and dull [2]. We have developed a mobile game that provides an engaging way for students to practice the basic syntax of C, C++ and Java. Learning programming language syntax is a tedious process. Practicing by actually programming is, of course, ideal, but we believe that a game which is fun for students to play in their spare time will help them get used to distinguishing correct syntactical constructs quickly. The initial version of the game was evaluated by a small population of first-year computer science students at Norfolk State University. The results showed that students enjoyed the game, and that a modest improvement in the students' abilities to identify correct and incorrect syntax was achieved.
AB - According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [1], computer science professions are among the fastest growing occupations in the U.S., and computer science occupations will add more than half a million new jobs in the next ten years. Simultaneously, universities in the U.S. and worldwide are seeing poor retention rates in computer science, with a major reason being that students often view the early courses in the subject as uninteresting and dull [2]. We have developed a mobile game that provides an engaging way for students to practice the basic syntax of C, C++ and Java. Learning programming language syntax is a tedious process. Practicing by actually programming is, of course, ideal, but we believe that a game which is fun for students to play in their spare time will help them get used to distinguishing correct syntactical constructs quickly. The initial version of the game was evaluated by a small population of first-year computer science students at Norfolk State University. The results showed that students enjoyed the game, and that a modest improvement in the students' abilities to identify correct and incorrect syntax was achieved.
KW - computer science education
KW - mobile computing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84960465270&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84960465270&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/FIE.2015.7344133
DO - 10.1109/FIE.2015.7344133
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84960465270
T3 - Proceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
BT - 2015 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 21 October 2015 through 24 October 2015
ER -