2016 4th International Conference in Software Engineering Research and Innovation
Methodology to construct educational video games in software engineering Eréndira M. Jiménez-Hernández, Hanna Oktaba, Frida DíazBarriga Arceo National Autonomous University of Mexico Ciudad de México, México {erendira.jimenez, hanna.oktaba} @ciencias.unam.mx,
[email protected]
Mario Piattini University of Castilla-La Mancha Ciudad Real, España
[email protected]
Section III presents our proposal methodology to construct educational video games in software engineering. The constructed video game and its experience evaluation are presented in Section IV as results of the use of the methodology. Finally, our conclusions and future work are provided in Section V.
Abstract – In this article, a methodology to construct educational video games in software engineering is presented. The methodology is an adaptation from the standard ISO/IEC 29110 [1]. Using the methodology, one educational video game named Alphaspot [2] was developed to facilitate the learning of the kernel Alphas of the Essence [3]. Some practitioners working at one software entity tested it. Keywords – Software engineering education; Methodology; ISO/IEC 29110; Educational video game; Essence
I.
II.
ESSENCE
Essence is a standard of the Object Management Group (OMG) that was approved in 2014. It is constituted by methods, practices, kernel and one language. The kernel is a framework of thought that permits to do reasoning about the progress and health of a software effort. It comprises three areas of concern: client, solution and effort. Each area of concern has a set of Alphas (essential things to work with), a set of Activity Spaces (essential things to do) and Competitions (essential capabilities required) in a software project. As shows Fig.1 the Essence kernel has seven Alphas: opportunity, stakeholders, requirements, software system, team, work and way of working. Each Alpha has a set of states, and each state has a checklist.
INTRODUCTION
Video games are a useful tool in teaching; with them are possible to transfer technology or practical knowledge [4]. Video games permit active learning [5] within a semiotic domain [6]. Video games provide a critical knowledge, with learning and reflecting on the external design grammar of the games [6], which is a form of metacognition [7]. In software engineering exist proposals of educational video games such as: [8] designed for early programming education, [9] constructed to encourage collaborative behavior in teams, [10] to teach concepts of software engineering, [11] to facilitate the requirements elicitation, [12] to learn key concepts of object-oriented design patterns and [13] to teach the software engineering process. This article presents a methodology to construct educational video games in software engineering; it was created from the standard ISO/IEC 29110. Our methodology served us to construct one video game designed to facilitate the learning of Essence kernel to software engineering students and professionals who work in software entities. This paper is organized as follows: Section II explains what is Essence with special focus in its kernel, which is the pedagogical content of the developed video game. 978-1-5090-1074-5/16 $31.00 © 2016 IEEE DOI 10.1109/CONISOFT.2016.25
Alan M. Revillagigedo-Tulais, Sergio V. Flores-Zarco Morelia Institute of Technology Morelia, México
[email protected] [email protected]
Figure 1. The kernel Alphas [3]
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III.
ISO/IEC 29110 DEPLOYMENT PACKAGE FOR EDUCATIONAL VIDEO GAMES
This methodology is composed by three stages: pre-production, production and post-production as specifies [1]. To develop educational video games, we add one process to the two processes included in ISO/IEC 29110. So, the methodology has three processes: project management, software implementation and pedagogical implementation (see Fig. 2) In order to create the activities for each process, it is necessary to identify three main actors: for the “project management” process it is desirable a “project manager/leader”, for the “software implementation” process it is necessary a “video game development team”, and for the “pedagogical implementation” process it must to exist a “pedagogic manager”. Project manager/leader is responsible of: • Obtain/specify the video game requirements. • Define the project plan. • Estimate costs. • Make the documentation of the video game designs. • Ensure compliance with the project plan (It can make use of the kernel Alphas of Essence). • Ensure the quality of the construction processes of the video game. • Assess the video game quality. Video game development team is responsible of: • Define the context/scenario of the video game according with the educational content. • Define the video game strategy. • Design the personages of the video game. • Propose the storyboard of the video game. • Codify the video game. • Test the video game. Pedagogic manager is responsible of: • Define the objective of learning. • Search information related to the aim of learning. • Select the educational content. • Share/teach the educational content [14] with the members of the video games development team. • Verify the design and the implementation of the educational content. • Confirm that the video game fulfills the learning objective.
Figure 2. Stages and processes of the methodology
We compare our methodology with [15]. This methodology has 7 stages. Experts in the field of education carry out the first and the second stages. The artistic director and scenarist conduct the next three stages. The sixth stage is the construction of the game, and the last one consists in the documentation of the game. In our methodology, we have 3 stages, and each one of them has 3 connected processes. Even when the methodology proposed has fewer stages; we accomplish the same objective. Also, we compare our proposal with MISA [16], which has five stages: analysis of the preliminary design, elaboration of architecture, design of educational materials, realization of the pedagogic material and validation of pedagogic material. In our proposal, we grouped the three first stages of MISA in the "pre-production" stage. The fourth stage of MISA corresponds to "production" stage. And the last one stage is the "post-production" stage in our methodology. IV.
RESULTS
By using the methodology proposed in this paper, we developed one educational video game named “Alphaspot”. The aim of this video game is to facilitate the learning of the kernel Alphas of Essence and its states. This game has 41 levels (one for each state of each Alpha). It was designed for a single player [17], it permits to obtain the learning levels of remember and understand, as proposed by Anderson & Krathwohl [18], and it allows learning through the four sensorial styles: visual, auditory, kinesthetic and reading/writing [19]. The main personage is Alphaspot (see Fig. 3). 111
Whether the player choose “new game”, it appears a video that shows a team meeting in which all the members are blaming between them for the problems of their software project. So, Alphaspot comes in and explains them what is Essence and how can they use it. Alphaspot ask for help to find all the state cards (41) of the seven Alphas of Essence that were robbed by its enemies (see Fig. 4a). After the introductory video, the player is introduced in a training level (see Fig. 4b). When the player passed this level, he can see the main menu (see Fig. 4c), which represents the seven Alphas with portals, the three interest areas (costumer, solution and endeavor) are represented by different colors (green, yellow and blue). The player can choose the Alpha that he wants, because there is not exists a specific order to play them. So, the player needs to move to Alphaspot next to the portal that wants to go. In each portal exist one personage that brings all the information about with the description of its alpha; its name is “Alphaspirit” (see Fig. 4d).
Figure 3. Alphaspot’s model
Alphaspot is a sphere that can walk, jump, roll, turn on/off its antenna and change the color of its antenna. Alphaspot was modeled using 3Dmax Studio®, Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Flash®. The video game was developed with the game engine "Unity 5" [20] and the program languages C# and JavaScript. When Alphaspot is open, it appears an initial menu, which has four options: new game, load game (games previously played), credits and exit.
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Figure 4. Alphaspot’s screens: (a) Meeting with problems, (b) Training level, (c) Main menu (Essence kernel), (d) Alphaspot next to Alphaspirit, (e) Levels (estates of one alpha), (f) View of one level of Alpha “Way of working”, (g) View of one level of Alpha “Team”, (h) Final meeting, (i) Evaluation level.
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TABLE I. IMI evaluation per Practitioner
When the player gets inside to one Alpha, he will see the levels or states of the Alpha. The player needs to pass the first level to pass to the second level and so on (see Fig. 4e). Fig. 4f shows the screen of the first level called “Principles established”, that belongs to Alpha “Way of Working”. Here the player needs to find the eight checkpoints of this state to get its card. This is the same dynamic in all the levels. But each level has a different appearance, sound and enemies (see Fig. 4g). Once the 41 cards are collected, the player will see a video that will show the characters in the initial meeting but now using the Alphas cards to solve their problems (see Fig. 4h). Finally, the video game has an evaluation level, in which a “final boss” make some questions to Alphaspot, and he has three possible options for choose one, as shown in Fig. 4i. This educational video game was developed in seven weeks, it is available two languages: English and Spanish. It can be run on computers with Mac OS® and Windows®. It can be downloaded from www.alphaspot.com.mx and from Google Play. Fig. 5 shows one screen of the adaptation of Alphaspot to one mobile with Android. Alphaspot was evaluated with the IMI (Intrinsic Motivation Inventory) as did in [21]. It is a method to evaluate the perceived experience while certain persons are performing some activity. IMI has 36 questions that evaluate 7 factors: (1) interest/enjoyment, (2) perceived competence, (3) effort, (4) pressure/stress, (5) perceived choice, (6) value/usefulness and (7) connection. It has an answer scale from 1 to 7, where 1 represents “not completely true” and 7 means “very true”. In a Mexican software entity, 12 practitioners were randomly selected to play Alphaspot in 8 hours, 2 hours by 4 days in a same week. They played the Spanish version of Alphaspot for computers. All the professionals got the 41 cards in the game within the established time. Eleven of the twelve practitioners passed the final test of the game (the evaluation knowledge level). The practitioners answered the 36 questions of the IMI, the average of each practitioner by each factor are in table 1.
Pract. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Average
1 7 6 7 7 5 6.5 7 6.2 5.8 7 6 7 6.5
2 7 5 7 7 6 4 7 3 5 7 6 7 5.9
FACTOR 3 4 5 4.5 2 7 2.3 1 5 6.8 1 7 2.5 1 7 7 2.5 4 3 1.7 6 2.5 1 7 4.5 2.8 5 2.8 3 3 2.5 1 7 4.7 2 6 1.5 1 7 3.7 1.7 5.9
6 7 6 7 7 5.8 6.2 7 5.6 5.2 7 5.8 7 6.4
7 7 6 7 7 5 6 7 6 5 7 6 7 6.3
Table 1 shows that, the practitioners enjoyed playing Alphaspot, they had the competencies needed to play Alphaspot, they did not feel much effort to play (it was relatively easy to play), they did not feel much pressure or stress playing Alphaspot, they felt that they could choose what they wanted to learn, they thought that Alphaspot was usefulness and they felt connection with the video game. V.
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
The adaptation of the Standard ISO/IEC 29110 "Deployment Package" for the construction of educational video games, is a methodology that can be used to develop games in the area of software engineering. The methodology proposal has three stages: preproduction, production and post-production. And it has three processes: project management, software implementation and pedagogical implementation. It is necessary to have three types of roles: project manager/leader, pedagogic manager and programmers. As a result of the usage of the methodology, one educational video game named “Alphaspot” was created to facilitate the learning of the kernel Alphas of Essence. The Alphas allow assessing the health and progress of a software project. Twelve practitioners working at one software entity played Alpha Spot. They assessed the educational video game by answering 36 questions. With the obtained results, we will improve some ludic aspects of Alphaspot and we will test the game again with more persons. We are planning to construct more educational video games in order to keep testing our methodology.
Figure 5. Alphaspot in Android
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors thank Arturo López Guzmán and Daniel Barcenas Acosta for the initial analysis and testing of Alphaspot. This work has been funded by the Graduate Science and Engineering Computing (UNAM) and the grant scholarship program of CONACyT. And the support of the Red Temática Mexicana de Ingeniería de Software (REDMIS).
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