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Abstract: Current programming practical classes are individual based, and consequently an opportunity is being missed to include a more collaborative learning environment. This work sets out to explore how a collaborative environment might be encouraged. One approach to achieve this is to use anonymous peer review of code. Peer review needs to be integrated into the completion of the practical and not seen as a separate entity. Game elements have the potential to allow for the extra work to be part of the practical in a motivating, timely and relevant manner. This paper presents a web-based system with game elements in a computer programming practical lab environment for students in third level education. The system locks later parts of the lab until each student's code has been reviewed anonymously by his/her peers and/or a lecturer. The locking mechanism encourages students to review each other's code. The aim is to create a team atmosphere among the students where collaboration and knowledge sharing is as important as technical completion of the lab practical. A user test has been carried out and our initial findings indicate an increase in student engagement. The study consisted of a class of 23 students in a Computer Graphics two hour programming practical class; there were six steps to complete. In conjunction with the students filling in a feedback form at the end of the lab, the data from the practical was analysed and the effectiveness of the approach is gauged.
Keywords: Game elements, code review, motivation, collaboration
1.Introduction
The African proverb "Alone I go faster, together we go further" pithily expresses a key benefit of collaboration. At present, programming practical classes are generally individual based and students seldom get an opportunity to see each other's code (Williams and Kessler 2000). The result is that the opportunity to create a more collaborative learning environment is passed by. Collaboration has been shown to be beneficial in creative and learning tasks (Edmondson and Nembhard 2009).
One example of an approach to collaboration is to employ Peer Review, which has been shown to be a good way to increase collaboration between participants (Kupfer et al. 2014). However, in studies such as (Ruggiero and Harbor 2012), it was found that while some students perceive the...