CPATH-1: Revitalizing Computing Education through Community-Based Video Game Development Projects

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This CPATH project uses free open source libraries and tools for a student-centered,community-based video game development project called Mythic for the purpose of revitalizing interest in computing studies. The Mythic project is student centered in the sense that students define project goals, and it is community-based in the sense that students from different institutions, ranging from high school to community college to university, contribute to the development of a common project. The project promises to help revitalize computing education by engaging students in meaningful and enjoyable work activities that lead to greater mastery of computing concepts through the use of software development tools, the use of software libraries, and the use of computing concepts. Project investigators are also establishing internships with local game development companies to increase the relevance to students and assist faculty in aligning learning outcomes to meet the needs of industry.The intellectual merit lies in the strong collaborative team with significant experience in game development and building real software in class settings. The project has an excellent conceptual foundation that could lead to new research findings in both video game development as well as in computing education.The broader impacts involve the potential to attract a more diverse student population to computing fields. Students from the local community who go into the video game industry will serve as role models for younger students at the high school and college levels. Similarly, students going into computing jobs outside the video game industry will also demonstrate to younger students as well as their parents and teachers that focusing on video game development when young can result in the development of skills needed for rewarding careers later in life. Black and Hispanic students account for more than 50% of enrollments at the lead institution. Thus, the project helps to broaden the participation of these underrepresented groups in pursuing degrees in computing disciplines. The associated learning materials that are produced can serve as a resource for other institutions and as a foundation for collaborative research. This project activity should demonstrate to other departments and institutions the value of student-centered, community-based video game development projects to cultivate interest in and mastery of computational thinking in students from high school through university.