Ohjelmoinnin opettaminen lapsille pelien avulla

Today, programmable devices are part of everyday life. Children grow up learning how to use them, but do not know how to modify or create them. Traditional classroom teaching methods do not usually focus on the motivational side. On the other hand, children have the innate tendency to play games which motivate on their own. This thesis looks into creating an educational game for programming and analysing its design. Literacy review gives quite a comprehensive list of game elements found in most games. The techniques used in entertainment games to motivate players can also be used in educational games. Examples are presented to provide a sense of today's educational games focusing in mathematics and programming. The game was analysed by comparing the lists of game elements with the game design. In addition, a specific game design assessment framework designed partly for educational games was used. In this thesis, a working educational game was created for learning programming. The user testing gave positive feedback which enforced the idea of successful implementation of an educational game. Data about games improving the attitude towards programming was also acquired. Data connected with cognitive improvement was inconclusive. Actual research, based on the improvement of the attitude towards learning programming or cognitive skills, is encouraged