Related papers: Having Fun in Learning Formal Specifications
Creating formal models of interactive systems has wide reaching benefits, not only for verifying low-level correctness, but also as a tool for ensuring user interfaces behave logically and consistently. Despite this, tools for designing…
The formal definition of limit is one mathematical idea that gives difficulties to most students. Therefore, it is necessary to provide engaging activity in order to construct the students' understanding about the definition. This study…
We present a small, formal language for specifying the behavior of simple console I/O programs. The design is driven by the concrete application case of testing interactive Haskell programs written by students. Specifications are…
Everyone learns to code nowadays. Writing code, however, does not go without testing, which unfortunately rarely seems to be taught explicitly. Testing is often not deemed important enough or is just not perceived as sufficiently exciting.…
Serious Games (SGs) have experienced a tremendous outburst these last years. Video game companies have been producing fun, user-friendly SGs, but their educational value has yet to be proven. Meanwhile, cognition research scientist have…
One of the main barriers preventing widespread use of formal methods is the elicitation of formal specifications. Formal specifications facilitate the testing and verification process for safety critical robotic systems. However, handling…
We extend the theory of disciplinary integration of games for science education beyond the virtual world of games, and identify two key themes of a practice-based theoretical commitment to science learning: (1) materiality in the classroom…
Formal models of games help us account for and predict behavior, leading to more robust and innovative designs. While the games research community has proposed many formalisms for both the "game half" (game models, game description…
Robots are a popular platform for introducing computing and artificial intelligence to novice programmers. However, programming state-of-the-art robots is very challenging, and requires knowledge of concurrency, operation safety, and…
Teaching programming effectively is difficult. This paper explores the benefits of using Minecraft Education Edition to teach Python programming. Educators can use the game to teach various programming concepts ranging from fundamental…
While Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable success in formal learning tasks such as mathematics and code generation, they still struggle with the "practical wisdom" and generalizable intelligence, such as strategic…
Reflection is a critical aspect of the learning process. However, educational games tend to focus on supporting learning concepts rather than supporting reflection. While reflection occurs in educational games, the educational game design…
Formal methods refer to rigorous, mathematical approaches to system development and have played a key role in establishing the correctness of safety-critical systems. The main building blocks of formal methods are models and specifications,…
Mobile Learning Games (MLGs) show great potential for increasing engagement, creativity and authentic learning. Yet, despite their great potential for education, the use of MLGs by teachers, remains limited. This is partly due to the fact…
This paper introduces a collection of board games specifically chosen to serve as a basis for programming exercises. We examine the attractiveness of board games in this context as well as features that make a particular game a good…
Educators often seek ways to introduce gaming in the classroom in order to break the usual teaching routine, expand the usual course curriculum with additional knowledge, but mostly as a means to motivate students and increase their…
Over the last several decades, computer games started to have a significant impact on society. However, although a computer game is a type of software, the process to conceptualize, produce and deliver a game could involve unusual features.…
Serious scientific games are games whose purpose is not only fun. In the field of science, the serious goals include crucial activities for scientists: outreach, teaching and research. The number of serious games is increasing rapidly, in…
Software engineering concepts and processes are worthy of formal study; and yet we seldom formalize them. This "research ideas" article explores what a theory of software engineering could and should look like. Software engineering research…
Formal mathematics is mathematics done within the framework of a formal logic. It offers major benefits to mathematicians as well as to computing professionals, engineers, and scientists who use mathematics in their work. The standard…