Introduction

Programming is a challenging concept for students to learn as students will have to learn not just programming constructs, but a programming language as well. It was found that high failure rates are common in introduction to programming courses but when the assignments are made in a way more engaging, students tend to grasp the concepts more quickly and are able to learn programming much more effectively.

This project involves creating a game assignment which can be used in introduction to programming courses to help students to learn these concepts. The game assignment which was created runs on both desktops and the Raspberry Pi with its Sense HAT add-on board.

Aim

To create a 2D game assignment which students will complete by adding in code specified by the assignment document, which can be included in first year introduction to programming courses.

Framework

The framework is separaated into three main parts

• Assignment memorandum
• Code scaffold version of the assignment
• An assignment document containing the questions for the assignment.

Results

From the results it is seen that the questions are clear for first year computer science students to understand and that the difficulty of these questions range from very easy to challenging, which is good for the assignment as you do not want to make the assignments to lean towards too easy or too difficult but rather have a balance between the two.

Conclusions

From the results it is clear to say that:

• The questions in the assignment are clear enough for first year computer science students to understand.
• The difficulty of the questions range from easy to challenging.
• The assignment is of a standard which can be incorporated into a first year programming course.