WIXLIB

Figure 33. Pre-Test & Post-Test Comparison of Student Interest in CS (Control Group) .126Figure 34. FCQ “How Much [was] Learned” between Variable (left) & Control (right) Groups .130Figure 35. Summary of Q37 for Variable Group (Left) and Control Group (Right) .131Figure 36. Summary of Q39 for Variable Group (Left) and Control Group (Right) .132Figure 37: Course Rating via FCQs for Variable (left) & Control (right) Groups .134Figure 38. Average Ratings between Variable (left) & Control (right) Groups .135Figure 39. Pre-Test (Q19) & Post-Test (Q33) of Programming Skills (Variable Group) .136Figure 40. Pre-Test (Q19) & Post-Test (Q33) of Programming Skills (Control Group) 138Figure 41. Pre-Test (Q13) & Post-Test (Q35) for CS as a Creative Practice (Variable Group) .141Figure 42. Pre-Test (Q13) & Post-Test (Q35) for CS as a Creative Practice (Control Group) .142Figure 43. Total Item Responses for Q63 for Variable Group (left) & Control Group (right) .146Figure 44. Total Item Responses for Q64 for Variable Group (left) & Control Group (right) .147Figure 45. Total Item Responses for Q1-Q3 for One Year Follow-Up Survey .149Figure 46. Total Item Responses for Q5-Q8 for One Year Follow-Up Survey . .154Figure 47. Summary of Q45 Responses for Variable & Control Group .161Figure 48. App Inventor’s Block-Programming Environment .178Figure 49. Example Lesson Strategy for Technovation .179Figure 50. Homepage of Gamified Technovation Website .181Figure 51. Feedback-loop for Completing Unit Lessons 182Figure 52. Secondary Feedback-lop via the Website .182Figure 53. Technovation Members List .183Figure 54. Example of Student Workbook Unit (Hardcopy) .184Figure 55. Example of Student Workbook Unit via Website .185Figure 56. The Technovation Classroom .191Figure 57. Photograph of the 2nd Gamification Iteration 192Figure 58. The Cubelets Six Kit .203Figure 59. The Robot Investigator Mission Log .207Figure 60. Learning Objectives via the Robot Investigator Workbook .208Figure 61. Mission Objective for Day 1 .209Figure 62. Daily Missions & Objectives are Color-Coded .211Figure 63. Red Text Signifies Opportunities to Earn Badges .213Figure 64. The “Badges Plaque” to Display Earned Badges .215Figure 65. Day 4: Build a Robot to Escape the Maze .217Figure 66. Smileyometer (Sluis, Dijik, & Perloy, 2012) as a Visual Aid for Likert Scaling .219x

Figure 67. Photograph of Children Engaging in Constructionism via Cubelets .223Figure 68. Screenshot of the Gidget (2014) Game-Based Learning Environment .227Figure 69. Screenshots of Khan Academy’s Gamification (left) & Programming Editor (right) .228Figure 70. Screenshots of Grok Learning Programming Console .229Figure 71. Screenshots of CS1 Knowledge Assessment Items .234Figure 72. Responses to Post-Test Q6-Q89 for Gidget .236Figure 73. Responses to Post-Test Q13-Q16 for Khan Academy .238Figure 74. Summary of Intrinsic Motivation Responses of Students from SIMS .241Figure 75. Summary of Identified Regulation Responses of Students from SIMS .242Figure 76. Summary of External Regulation Responses of Students from SIMS .243Figure 77. Summary of Amotivation Responses of Students from SIMS .243xi

CHAPTER IINTRODUCTIONI.BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATIONInformation and communication technologies have profoundly altered interaction inhuman society, productivity in enterprise, and the creation and dissemination of information (NRC,2003; NRC 2005; NRC, 2007). The use of modeling and simulation, visualization, and themanagement of massive data sets have fostered computer science as a bridge between science,technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Computer science (CS) hasenabled significant advances in innovation and imagination, and continues to facilitate efforts toaddress many social problems.Although the United States has become increasingly dependent upon information andcommunication technologies, many of its citizens are ill-equipped to make informed decisionsabout technology (NRC, 2005), and also lack the knowledge and capability to take advantage ofthe many opportunities emerging from technological and social change (NRC, 2005; Owens &Stephenson, 2011). Professionals in every discipline—art and entertainment, communications andhealth care, government infrastructure and economic exchange—need to understand and be ableto employ computing in order to function and thrive in a globally competitive environment (NRC,2007). Without meaningful engagement and facility with computer science by the general public,the U.S. economy risks losing competency and self-efficacy in the global networked age (NRC,2007; NRC, 2005).Many jobs that today’s students will have during their careers have not yet been invented,and the majority of careers in the 21st century will require some background in computer science1

(Owens & Stephenson, 2011; NRC, 2007). The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2013) estimatesthat between 2010 and 2020 approximately 1.4 million computing-related jobs will be created inthe U.S. alone. Even though the computing industry has more projected career growth than allother jobs combined, including all STEM careers (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013), less than2.4% of college students graduate with a degree in computer science. Even though undergraduatestudent enrollment in computer science has increased slightly over the last few years, CS as a fieldof study historically has high attrition rates, and in some cases, negative growth for non-majoritygroups (ACM & IEEE, 2013). Diversity is critical to innovation and excellence (NRC, 2005;NRC, 2007); thus increasing diversity is key to long-term economic growth and globalcompetitiveness (NRC, 2003; NRC 2005; NRC, 2007). However, only 26% of the computingworkforce are women, and less than 4% of the computing workforce are Latina or AfricanAmerican women (NCWIT, 2015).Therefore, a basic understanding of and facility withcomputational thinking (Wing, 2009), computing literacy, and computer science is essential tobeing part of a well-educated and informed citizenry in the twenty-first century (NRC, 2004; NRC,2007). As the Information Age continues to transform virtually every aspect of life, computerscience must become part of a general liberal education. The required understanding of computingis deeper than the ability to use a computer or a mobile phone for day-to-day personal productivityor social interaction.How should we teach students computer science skills? Seymour Papert (1971; 1980)argued that learning computer science is a way of learning about learning. Computer science canhelp individuals learn how to think critically and creatively (Owens & Stephenson, 2011; NRC,2003); how to approach ambiguous and challenging problems (ACM & IEEE, 2013); how toanalyze and synthesize vast amounts of information (NRC, 2003); how to use computation as an2

analysis tool (NRC, 2007; Wing, 2009); how to understand relationships between seeminglydisparate data (NRC, 2007); and how to collaborate (NRC, 2005). Learning computer science thusaffords individuals the ability to navigate more effectively through a society in which theyfrequently encounter technology in their personal lives (NRC, 2010). Why then, do so few studentspursue studies in this critically important field?II.PRIOR RESEARCHCollege and high school curricula have struggled to provide students with engagingmethods for learning both basic and advanced computational concepts, and efforts to incorporatecomputer science into K-12 curricula have met with limited success. Only twenty-seven states inthe U.S. allow students to count computer science courses towards high school graduation(Association of Computing Machinery, 2011). Moreover, the majority of schools in the U.S. donot even offer computer programming classes (Association of Computing Machinery, 2011;Gallup, 2014). When courses are offered, many students, particularly female students and thosefrom underrepresented minority groups, are choosing not enroll in CS classes (ACM & IEEE,2013). Although the number of students taking Advanced Placement (AP) CS courses hasincreased in recent years (Ericson & Guzdial, 2014), the number of students taking thisexamination is much smaller than for other AP STEM Examinations. For example, of the1,379,585 AP math and science exams taken by U.S. high school students in 2013, only 29,555were computer science exams—a 2:98 ratio of students in computer science relative to the rest ofSTEM. In addition, the participation rate of underrepresented groups in AP computer science,including female, African American, and Latina students, is also lower than other STEM AP3

examinations1. Ericson and Guzdial (2014) argue, “If you want more AP CS exam-takers, thefocus should be on the underrepresented groups” (p. 222). Issues of privileged access may beanother reason why non-majority populations continue to have low representations in thecomputing workforce (NCWIT, 2015). The low participation of students, particularly nonmajority groups, in the Advanced Placement Computer Science curriculum is emblematic of thisproblem.Many students, particularly girls and women, find traditional approaches for learningcomputer science off-putting, asocial, and boring (AAUW, 2000; Margolis & Fisher, 2002;Ashcraft et al., 2012). How best to teach introductory computer science on a broad level,particularly for those with limited exposure or no previous experience in CS, remains a significantchallenge. Since many young people are actively engaged in digital gaming2 spaces (Van Eck,2006; Kafai et al., 2008; ESA, 2014) and video games3 themselves are computational artifacts,digital gaming offers a potentially promising approach to increase student interest and engagementfor learning computer science.There have been numerous efforts to translate the engagement found in games intoeducation (Ritzhaupt, 2009; Linhoff & Settle, 2009; Barnes, Richter & Powell, 2007; Eagle &Barnes, 2009; Cooper, Dann, & Pausch, 2003; Malan & Leitner, 2007; Basawapatna, Koh &Repenning, 2010). Many argue that games embody beneficial learning principles (Malone, 1980a,1980b; Shaffer, 2008; Collins & Halverson, 2009; Gee, 2003; Squire, 2011, 2003) by promoting1In 2012, AP Calculus had a higher percentage of underrepresented groups take the exam than CS: for females48.3% (Calculus) versus 18.7% (CS), for African American students 5.4% versus 4.0%, and Latina students 11.5%versus 7.7% (Arpaci-Dusseau et al., 2013).2Digital gaming refers to video games, computer games, mobile hand-held games, social-media games, etc.3I use video games, gaming, and games interchangeably to denote the broader pop-cultural applications of all digitalgaming spaces, since the vernacular of “video games” is often used to describe this phenomenon.4

extrinsic and intrinsic motivations (Schmitz et al., 2011), allowing the freedom to explore and fail(Mitgutsch, 2012; Malaby, 2007), and fostering effective problem-solving skills (Squire et al.,2008; Gee, 2003; Bogost, 2007; Khaled et al., 2009).Despite the numerous attempts to use games in education, these efforts have yielded onlymixed results (Charsky, 2010; Van Eck, 2006). Many game designers and educators haveattempted to harness the power of games for learning, but these efforts have often resulted in boringgames with ineffective learning (Papert, 1980; Mitgutsch & Alvarado, 2012). As Bogost (2011)succinctly states: “Making games is hard. Making good games is even harder. Making good gamesthat hope to serve some external purpose is even harder” (p. 3). Some studies have made progressin developing methodologies for designing games that obtain or retain the player’s engagement,while also achieving some expli

Gamification in Introductory Computer Science Thesis directed by Archuleta Professor of Computer Science and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. John K. Bennett This thesis investigates the impact of gamification on student motivation and learning in seve