A proposal of educational games classification for software engineering

Abstract

Games for educational purposes have been used in different areas as supplementary strategies to the traditional teaching-learning process. Software Engineering-applying methods and techniques for building high-quality software products-also includes games in the professional training process. In order to provide a tool for teacher guidance about their use in their teaching-learning process, several game classifications have been proposed. However, existing classifications consider the game purpose and the target audience, but they omit variables associated with the structure of the game-e.g., rules or materials. This paper proposes a classification of games for teaching software engineering considering purpose, scope, and fun components. This proposal defines the key features of any game for teaching software engineering and provides alternatives to professors for incorporating this teaching tool in their training process. The proposed classification was applied to a set of 17 games oriented to software engineering teaching, showing its potential as a support tool in the analysis, comparison, and selection of games for teaching this discipline.