Building a Serious Game to Teach Secure Coding in Introductory Programming Courses

We report the development and initial evaluation of a serious game that, in conjunction with appropriately designed matching laboratory exercises, can be used to teach secure coding and Information Assurance (IA) concepts across a range of introductory computing courses. The IA Game is a role-playing serious game (RPG) in which the student travels through seven computer techno-inspired environments (IA concept rooms); in each environment he/she learns a different IA concept. After playing each level, the student completes a related CS educational module comprised of a theory lesson and a lab assignment. The game is being created with a user-centered iterative approach that includes two forms of evaluation: formative and summative. In this paper we report the findings of an initial formative evaluation of the first 2 game levels with a group of undergraduate students.