Teaching Recursion Visually
Three steps beyong the IDE

ABOUT

Recursion is an important and powerful computational problem-solving tool. However, many students find it difficult to understand and challenging to utilize. A game based on recursion was developed to aid in the teaching of recursion through
visual coding, stack simulation and visual simulation.

Accomplishments

7 Levels

7 unique maze levels give a gamified experience and incentive to progress through the game.

Universal Simulation

A visual simulation for math-type questions was developed that can be used for any mathematical-type question.

Drag and Drop

Visual UI makes use of a drag and drop mechanic for an easy coding experience.

Stack Simulation

The role of the call stack is clearly visualized at each recursive step.

Resources

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Project Proposal

Three Visual Approaches to Aid the Teaching of Recursion

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Student Interviews

Learning Recursion Experience

Google Form: Three Approaches to Aid Teaching of Recursion

Google Form:
User Testing and Evaluation

Short Questions and Game Experience Questionnaire

University of Cape Town

Team

  • Moegamat Ra-eez Stenekamp
  • Shakeel Mohamed
  • Tony Guo

Supervisors

  • Jecton Anyango
  • Hussein Suleman
Computer Science Department