Game Based Early Programming Education: The More You Play, the More You Learn

Mini-languages is a branch of Educational Software for learning programming at an introductory level. On the other hand, participation, interaction and storylines make Educational Games motivating to young learners. The study presented here examined various widely known minilanguages with an emphasis on LOGO implementations and followed a combinational route to take advantage of both Game-Based Learning (GBL) and the use of mini-languages in the design of a new LOGO-like environment. PlayLOGO 3D is a video game with defined learning outcomes aiming to support GBL activities especially designed for children aged 6-13 years in the early stages of programming education. The Expert Review Method was used for initial evaluation based on a set of heuristics for usability, game play and educational effectiveness. Although the expert team found a few violations of heuristics criteria, evaluation results are very encouraging and prove that there is enough room to make programming education more fun.