English

Teaching Software Testing and Debugging with the Serious Game Sojourner under Sabotage

Software Engineering 2025-04-29 v1

Abstract

Software testing and debugging are often seen as tedious, making them challenging to teach effectively. We present Sojourner under Sabotage, a browser-based serious game that enhances learning through interactive, narrative-driven challenges. Players act as spaceship crew members, using unit tests and debugging techniques to fix sabotaged components. Sojourner under Sabotage provides hands-on experience with the real-world testing framework JUnit, improving student engagement, test coverage, and debugging skills.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.19291,
  title  = {Teaching Software Testing and Debugging with the Serious Game Sojourner under Sabotage},
  author = {Philipp Straubinger and Tim Greller and Gordon Fraser},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.19291},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:12:58.841Z