Leveling up learning: Serious games for computing education - Long-term opportunities and risks

Abstract

Serious games are becoming an increasingly popular tool in education, including computing education, due to their potential to engage learners, practice skills development, stimulate creativity, promote active learning, and cultivate exploration. However, few researchers have discussed the potential long-term implications of using serious games for learning programming and how they can be addressed. This paper investigates opportunities and drawbacks arising from the wider use of serious games in computing education. We look beyond immediate effects, such as the risk of distraction and technological barriers, and consider prospects and risks caused by market forces and the economic realities of the game, education, and software industries. In particular, we discuss how technological advances can increase the benefits of serious games for programming education, but also that there is a risk that an increasing use of serious games might result in market dominance of a few vendors, lack of diversity, cultural bias, inequity, pressure on education funding, and reduced learning outcomes.