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Mobile serious games: Effects on students’ understanding of programming concepts and attitudes towards information technology

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure the impacts of mobile serious games on fifth grade students’ attitudes towards “Information Technology and Software” course and understanding of programming concepts. For this purpose, a five weeks long study was conducted in a private primary school in Turkey with randomly selected 36 fifth grade students. Twenty-one students that were in the experiment group played the mobile serious game Lightbot, which teaches basic programming concepts, on iPad for three weeks and the control group had their lectures according to the curriculum determined by the Ministry of Education. In order to collect the data from the participants, pretest-posttest design was used. Data analysis results showed a significant increase in the achievements of the students in programming concepts after playing the Lightbot game while control group’s test results showed no increase. However, the treatment with the game did not create any positive impact on the attitudes of the students towards the “Information Technology and Software” course.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Prof. Dr. Hande Türker for her valuable help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Information Systems, Bogazici University, Bebek, 34342, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mirac Yallihep & Birgul Kutlu

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  1. Mirac Yallihep
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  2. Birgul Kutlu
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Correspondence to Mirac Yallihep.

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Attitude scale for information technology and software course

Please specify your level of agreement for each item.

1

2

3

4

5

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Not sure

Agree

Strongly agree

    

1 2 3 4 5

1. “Information Technology and Software” is a course I like.

     

2. I have trouble entering “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

3. Life would be much more enjoyable if there is no “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

4. I enjoy discussing “Information Technology and Software” course with my friends.

     

5. I want more class hours for “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

6. I am bored while studying for “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

7. “Information Technology and Software” course is hard work for me.

     

8. I like “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

9. Time does not pass in “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

10. I fear the exam of “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

11. “Information Technology and Software” course is interesting for me.

     

12. “Information Technology and Software” course is the course that I fear the most.

     

13. I would not get bored if I take “Information Technology and Software” course for years.

     

14. I work more fondly for “Information Technology and Software” course than other courses.

     

15. I feel restless in “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

16. I feel appalled in “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

17. “Information Technology and Software” course is an entertaining course.

     

18. I am happy in the “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

19. “Information Technology and Software” course is the most unsympathetic course.

     

20. I would like to spare most of my study time for “Information Technology and Software” course.

     

Appendix 2: Achievement scale for programming

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Yallihep, M., Kutlu, B. Mobile serious games: Effects on students’ understanding of programming concepts and attitudes towards information technology. Educ Inf Technol 25, 1237–1254 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-10008-2

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