gamifying teaching and learning of software engineering and programming
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Talk slides presented at Software Engineering Educators Symposium (SEES) 2014, Hong Kong, November 17, 2014. http://cs.nju.edu.cn/changxu/sees/TRANSCRIPT

Gamifying Teaching and Learning of Software Engineering and Programming
Tao Xie
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In collaboration with Nikolai Tillmann, Jonathan de Halleux, and Judith Bishop
(Microsoft Research)
http://pex4fun.com
https://www.codehunt.com
Related Papers/Resources: https://sites.google.com/site/asergrp/projects/ese

Working for fun
Enjoyment adds to long term retention on a taskDiscovery is a powerful driver, contrasting with direct instructionsGaming joins these two, and is hugely popularCan we add these elements to coding?
Write a program to determine all the sets of effectively identical rooms in a maze. (A page of background, sample input and output given)

Testing Tool Educational Gaming
Dynamic Symbolic Execution (Pex)
Pex for Fun:Interactive Gaming for Teaching and Learning
Support
http://research.microsoft.com/pex/ http://pex4fun.comhttps://www.codehunt.com

Agenda
Background
Coding Duels
Educational Platform
Experiences
Conclusion

Agenda
Background
Coding Duels
Educational Platform
Experiences
Conclusion

http://research.microsoft.com/pex/
Dynamic Symbolic Execution (DSE)aka. Concolic Testing
[Godefroid et al. 05][Sen et al. 05][Tillmann et al. 08]
Instrument code to explore feasible paths
Background

http://research.microsoft.com/pex/

void CoverMe(int[] a){
if (a == null) return;if (a.Length > 0)if (a[0] == 1234567890)
throw new Exception("bug");}
a.Length>0
a[0]==123…
TF
T
F
Fa==null
T
Constraints to solve
a!=null
a!=null &&
a.Length>0
a!=null &&
a.Length>0 &&
a[0]==123456890
Input
null
{}
{0}
{123…}
Execute&MonitorSolve
Choose next path
Observed constraints
a==null
a!=null &&
!(a.Length>0)
a==null &&
a.Length>0 &&
a[0]!=1234567890
a==null &&
a.Length>0 &&
a[0]==1234567890
Done: There is no path left.
Dynamic Symbolic Execution in Pex
http://pex4fun.com/HowDoesPexWork

Pex is Part of Visual Studio 2015!
• As new feature of “Smart Unit Tests”
http://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/vs2015-preview-vs#Testing

Coding Duels
1,594,092 clicked 'Ask Pex!'

Coding Duels
Pex computes “semantic diff” in cloud
secret reference implementation vs.
code written in browser
You win when Pex finds no differencesFor more info, see our ICSE 2013 SEE paper: http://web.engr.illinois.edu/~taoxie/publications/icse13see-pex4fun.pdf

Behind the Scene of Pex for Fun
Secret Implementation
class Secret {public static int Puzzle(int x) {
if (x <= 0) return 1;return x * Puzzle(x-1);
}}
Player Implementation
class Player {public static int Puzzle(int x) {
return x;}
}
class Test {public static void Driver(int x) {
if (Secret.Puzzle(x) != Player.Puzzle(x))throw new Exception(“Mismatch”);
}}
behaviorSecret Impl == Player Impl
12
1,594,0921,594,092

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Code Hunt Programming Game

Leaderboard and Dashboard
Publically visible, updated during the contest
Visible only to the organizer

It’s a game!
iterative gameplayadaptivepersonalizedno cheatingclear winning criterion
code
test cases

Audiences
Students: proceed through a sequence on puzzles to learn and practice.
Educators: exercise different parts of a curriculum, and track students’ progress Recruiters: use contests to inspire communities and results to guide hiring
Researchers: mine extensive data in Azure to evaluate how people code and learn

Social Experience
Community
High score lists, leaderboard
Live feed
http://pex4fun.com/Community.aspxhttp://pex4fun.com/Livefeed.aspx

Agenda
Background
Coding Duels
Educational Platform
Experiences
Conclusion

Teaching and Learning

Skills Being Trained
Induction
Problem solving/debugging
Program understanding/programming
Testing
Specification writing

Coding Duels for Course Assignments@Grad Software Engineering Course
http://pexforfun.com/gradsofteng
Observed Benefits• Automatic Grading• Real-time Feedback (for Both Students and Teachers)• Fun Learning Experiences

Coding Duels for Training Testingpublic static string Puzzle(int[] elems, int capacity, int elem) {
if ((maxsize <= 0) || (elems == null) || (elems.Length > (capacity + 1))) return "Assumption Violation!";
Stack s= new Stack(capacity);for (int i = 0; i < elems.Length; i++)
s.Push(elems[i]);int origSize = s.GetNumOfElements();//Please fill in below test scenario on the s stack
//The lines below include assertions to assert the program behaviorPexAssert.IsTrue(s.GetNumOfElements() == origSize + 1);PexAssert.IsTrue(s.Top() == elem); PexAssert.IsTrue(!s.IsEmpty());PexAssert.IsTrue(s.IsMember(elem));return s.GetNumOfElements().ToString() + "; “ + s.Top().ToString() + "; “
+ s.IsMember(elem).ToString() + "; " + s.IsEmpty(); }
Set up a stack with some elements
Cache values used in assertions

Example User Feedback
“It really got me *excited*. The part that got me most is about spreading interest in teaching CS: I do think that it’s REALLY great for teaching | learning!”
“I used to love the first person shooters and the satisfaction of blowing away a whole team of Noobies playing Rainbow Six, but this is far more fun.”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to constrain myself to spend just an hour or so a day on this really exciting stuff, as I’m really stuffed with work.”
Released since 2010
X

Recap: Code Hunt: A Game for Coding
For individuals (K12, introductory courses, geeks)
For competitions at any level, world-wide or in house
Based on long-term research on symbolic program analysis (Pex, Z3)
Works with Java and C#
Runs in any modern browser
Now working on tablets and phoneswww.codehunt.com

Summary: Testing Tool Educational Gaming
DSE/PexPex for Fun:
Interactive Gaming for
Teaching and Learning
Support
http://pex4fun.comhttps://www.codehunt.com

Testing Tool Educational Gaming
Support
http://research.microsoft.com/pex/ http://pex4fun.com
Related Papers/Resources: https://sites.google.com/site/asergrp/projects/ese
Q & A
Thank you!
Contact: [email protected] http://www.cs.illinois.edu/homes/taoxie/

Summary: Testing Tool Educational Gaming
DSE/PexPex for Fun:
Interactive Gaming for
Teaching and Learning
Support
http://pex4fun.comhttps://www.codehunt.com