virtual education: exploring the...
TRANSCRIPT
School of Computer Science
BSc (Hons) Computer Science with Industrial Experience
Virtual Education:
Exploring the Imaginarium
Final Year Project Report
Lora Lyudmilova Lovchalieva
Supervisor: Dr. David Rydeheard
May 3, 2016
University of Manchester
Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................................................. i
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. ii
Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................1
1.1. Motivation .................................................................................................................1
1.2. Computer Science for children .................................................................................4
Computing At School (CAS) ............................................................................................4
STEMNET .......................................................................................................................5
Code Club .......................................................................................................................5
cs4Fn ..............................................................................................................................5
1.3. Project Aims and Objectives .....................................................................................5
1.3.1. Aims ..................................................................................................................5
1.3.2. Objectives .........................................................................................................6
1.3.3. Educational Aims ..............................................................................................6
1.4. Deliverables .............................................................................................................7
Chapter 2 Background .........................................................................................................8
2.1. Educational Background ..........................................................................................8
2.1.1. Problems in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ........................8
2.1.2. National Curriculum Reforms .......................................................................... 12
2.2. Technical Background ............................................................................................ 12
2.2.1. Virtual Reality .................................................................................................. 12
2.2.2. Game Engines ................................................................................................ 13
Chapter 3 Design and Implementation.............................................................................. 15
3.1. Theme selection ..................................................................................................... 15
3.2. Structure of the Workshop ...................................................................................... 17
3.3. The Talk ................................................................................................................. 18
3.4. The Imaginarium Game .......................................................................................... 19
3.4.1. Implementation................................................................................................ 19
3.4.2. Organisation .................................................................................................... 23
3.4.3. Difficulties ........................................................................................................ 23
Chapter 4 Results and Evaluation ..................................................................................... 24
4.1. Delivery of the Workshop ....................................................................................... 24
4.1.1. Discover Computer Science Day ..................................................................... 24
4.1.2. Explore Computer Science Day ...................................................................... 25
4.1.3. Fairfield High School for Girls .......................................................................... 26
4.1.4. Related Events ................................................................................................ 27
4.2. Feedback Collection ............................................................................................... 29
4.3. Evaluation of Feedback .......................................................................................... 29
4.3.1. Aims ................................................................................................................ 29
4.3.2. Objectives ....................................................................................................... 30
4.3.3. Changes Made Based on Feedback ............................................................... 31
Chapter 5 Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 32
5.1. Overview ................................................................................................................ 32
5.2. Achievements......................................................................................................... 32
5.3. Limitations and Future Work ................................................................................... 32
References .......................................................................................................................... 34
Appendix A: Supporting Materials .................................................................................... 39
Appendix B: List of Schools Involved in Activities .......................................................... 48
Discover Computer Science Day ...................................................................................... 48
Explore Computer Science Day ........................................................................................ 48
School Visit ....................................................................................................................... 48
Appendix C: Feedback from the Workshops.................................................................... 49
List of Figures
Figure 1. Children playing the virtual reality game at ScienceX [28]. ......................................1
Figure 2. Changes in the number of jobs in the UK between December 2014 and December
2015, seasonally adjusted [8]. ................................................................................................2
Figure 3. IT specialists in the UK by gender, 2004-2014 [12]. .................................................3
Figure 4. Students attending a workshop at the Discover Day 2015 [2]. .................................4
Figure 5. Student Impression of What CS Majors Learn [20]. .................................................8
Figure 6. Grade A* outcomes compared to grade A outcomes 2015 [21]. ..............................9
Figure 7. Difference between male and female A-level subject choices [21]. ........................ 10
Figure 8. Percentages of teachers teaching ICT not classified by the Department as
‘qualified’ in the subject, by Government office region (England, 2010) [24]. ........................ 11
Figure 9. Introduction to data structures using the game at ScienceX [29]............................ 11
Figure 10. Suggested terminology reform [24]. ..................................................................... 12
Figure 11. A child using Oculus Rift DK2 headset at Science Spectacular 2015 [6]. ............. 13
Figure 12. The activity opened in Unity Game Engine. ......................................................... 14
Figure 13. Playing with Oculus Rift at Science Spectacular 2015 [6]. ................................... 15
Figure 14. Testing the ‘Homuncular Flexibility’ project at the University of Stanford [44]. ...... 16
Figure 15. Video game audience by age [45]. ...................................................................... 17
Figure 16. Favourite video game genre [45]. ........................................................................ 17
Figure 17. An example of good(left) and bad(right) designs. ................................................ 19
Figure 18. Initial version of The Imaginarium game. ............................................................. 20
Figure 19. Room 1 - a stack data structure represented as a ball container. ........................ 21
Figure 20. Questions and answers grouped as a decision tree. ............................................ 21
Figure 21. A level demonstrating binary search. ................................................................... 21
Figure 22. Words and acronyms related to Computer Science hidden in the room. .............. 22
Figure 23. The Main Menu where the next level can be selected. ........................................ 22
Figure 24. An 'unplugged' activity teaching linked list at the Discover Day [2]. ...................... 24
Figure 25. Children testing the Oculus Rift at Explore Day [3] .............................................. 25
Figure 26. Student playing the game (front) and Google Cardboard (back) at Explore Day [3].
............................................................................................................................................. 26
Figure 27. Children playing the VR game during school visit [5]. .......................................... 27
Figure 28. A child exploring virtual reality for a first time at Science Spectacular [6]. ............ 27
Figure 29. Virtual reality demo in Otetz Paisii Secondary School, Smolyan, Bulgaria [58]. ... 28
Figure 30. Demonstrating the project to a PhD student at the DigiLab [59]. .......................... 28
Figure 31. Results of an official Explore Day feedback form [3]. ........................................... 30
i
Abstract
One way of inspiring schoolchildren to study Computer Science is to introduce them to a new
and innovative method of teaching computing. This report presents an overview of an
outreach project that aims to teach schoolchildren fundamental concepts of Computer Science
by applying gamification [1]. А flexible workshop suitable for children from various age
groups, genders and abilities has been developed. The target group is children between the
ages of eleven and seventeen (KS3 and KS4). An educational virtual reality game and a
workshop with supporting materials have been developed.
One of the aims of the project is to convince people that programming is for everyone. By
grouping the children in teams of up to five members, the workshop attempts to develop soft
skills such as teamwork and communication skills. The project has a special focus on
attracting girls into Computer Science.
The activity was successfully delivered to a number of outreach events involving
schoolchildren during this academic year including Discover Computer Science Day [2],
Explore Computer Science Day [3] and British Science Week [4]. The latest school visit at
Fairfield High School for Girls [5] was focused on gender balance and aimed to attract more
female school students to computing. Supporting materials were developed in order to allow
future delivery of the project. The feedback was overall positive and constructive comments
were taken into consideration when developing the workshop.
Keywords: outreach, gamification, virtual reality, schools
ii
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.
David Rydeheard, for his help and the support throughout this project and for his dedication
to the school outreach as a whole.
I would like to thank my parents for their constant support and for the opportunity they gave
me to follow my dreams. Without them I would not have been able to undertake this degree.
I am also grateful to the schools, their students and the teachers who attended my workshops,
for being enthusiastic, curious and great in providing valuable feedback. Alongside this, I
would like to thank those who helped me in the outreach events. In particular, Teo Taylor, for
being someone to run ideas by, George Vanburgh, for the support during all of the events we
attended, Yasen Lilov who helped me during the school visit in Bulgaria and Jeremy Lloyd,
for the help and the opportunities to demonstrate my project he gave me.
Last, but not least, I would like to thank to my dearest friend Kristina Georgieva for her help
in the design of The Imaginarium and for her valuable advices throughout this project and
Dimitar Kisyov for his patience and his invaluable support during my exciting journey in
Manchester.
1
Chapter 1
Introduction
This chapter introduces the motivation and the aims of the project. In addition, it discusses
organisations and web sites related to the topic of the project.
1.1. Motivation
The main goal of this project is to attract school students to study Computer Science and teach
them fundamental concepts of the subject. In this chapter we discuss problems related to
Computer Science education.
Children are naturally curious and start exploring the world since they are babies. There are
various software applications developed specifically for babies. Some of the top ten
applications for babies and toddlers according to Parents website [6] are Learn to Talk First
Words [7], Kidzongs [8] and Peekaboo Barn [9] which teach toddlers new words, songs and
animals. In order to maintain children’s curiosity, an encouragement of understanding
technology is vital.
The goal of this project is to deliver workshops to school students in order to introduce them
to fundamental principles of Computer Science. In addition, it allows them to work with
innovative equipment, which the schools are not able to provide, and demonstrate its real
world application and the benefits of the technology to the society.
Figure 1. Children playing the virtual reality game at ScienceX [29].
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Technology has a tremendous effect on the social and economic progress of the modern
society. Its impact has been experienced in many areas such as change of modes of transport,
replacement of dangerous manual work such as mining and space exploration, automation of
the industry, improvement of the communication and innovation in the health care [10]. In
order to continue the process of innovation today, an educated society, which is able to
maintain and further develop the state of the technology, is needed.
Figure 2. Changes in the number of jobs in the UK between December 2014 and December 2015, seasonally adjusted [11].
The digital revolution generated approximately 150 000 new technical and scientific job
positions between December 2014 and December 2015 in the UK (Figure 2), but the statistics
show that finding individuals to fill those positions is a challenge [12]. In fact, one of the
biggest challenges for companies to sustain their competitive advantage is the lack of
qualified candidates to take positions on offer [13]. The problem starts in schools with the A-
levels subject choices UK students do. Over the past decade Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects are the ones least appealing to the students.
Among them, the Computing is having the lowest percentage (Table 1) [14].
3
Table 1. Percentage of A level students entering for mathematics and science A levels by gender [14].
Another major problem is the gender balance. Only 17% of the IT (Information Technology)
specialists who worked in the UK in 2014 were women and approximately 27% of the
students taking IT related GCE (General Certificate of Education) in 2014 were females
(Figure 3) [15]. According to researchers, developing projects and activities that encourage
young students to choose Computer Science as a subject at school and follow it as a career
path is desirable in order to maintain the current level of innovation in the area of technology
[16]. This belief is also a major motivator for the research undertaken by this project.
Figure 3. IT specialists in the UK by gender, 2004-2014 [15].
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1.2. Computer Science for children
Efforts to introduce the field of Computer Science to schoolchildren are substantial. Websites
and organisations have been established aiming at delivering workshops and online courses
and bring professionals from different industrial sectors into the schools to inspire the
students. This study provides a brief survey of organisations involved in supporting schools
and schoolchildren in computing.
The first organisation provides workshops, conferences and visits to local schools. The second
one aims to connect schoolchildren with professionals in order to fill the gap between schools
and the industry and show the opportunities that the STEM related jobs offer. The last two
organisations promotes computing by volunteer-led out of school workshops (Code Club
[17]) and web site and magazine (Computer Science for Fun [18]).
Computing At School (CAS)
Computing at School [17] is a teacher-led organization with over 22000 members and over
190 local hubs that aims to educate, engage and encourage students, teachers and institutions
involved in the computing education in the schools. The newly announced North West CAS
Regional Centre (2015) [19] is run jointly by the University of Manchester (School of
Computer Science) and Edge Hill University and provides support to local primary and
secondary schools. It creates opportunities for schoolchildren and their teachers to explore
Computer Science by organising and hosting events and delivering workshops to schools such
as the workshop developed in this project.
Figure 4. Students attending a workshop at the Discover Day 2015 [2].
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STEMNET
STEMNET [20] is a UK Government run organisation that strives to create opportunities for
the schoolchildren from different backgrounds and abilities to meet inspiring role models and
to find out more about the real application of STEM subjects.
Code Club
Code Club [17] is a nationwide network project of volunteer-led after-school coding clubs. Its
focus is on younger audience, children aged between nine and eleven. According to the Code
Club statistics, currently there are 4164 clubs and a total number of 58000 children
participating in them.
cs4Fn
Computer Science for Fun [18] is a project which provides materials related to Computer
Science on the web or in print as a magazine produced at Queen Mary and Westfield College.
Cs4fn demonstrates the fun side of the Computer Science by introducing games and
interesting facts about the science such as an article discussing problems that even a computer
is not able to solve, or a puzzle explaining the aim of compression algorithms.
1.3. Project Aims and Objectives
The main purpose of the project is to show how exciting computing is and encourage more
schoolchildren to choose those qualifications at school and at university and as future career
path.
1.3.1. Aims
The aims of the project are:
To inspire school students between the ages eleven and seventeen and give them
an opportunity to understand fundamental concepts in Computer Science,
To attract students different in age, abilities and gender, especially focusing on
gender balance,
To create a flexible workshop with independent parts and supporting materials
which can be used by students, university staff and teachers for future outreach
events.
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1.3.2. Objectives
In order to achieve and later evaluate the success of the project, we give a detailed list of its
objectives:
Excitement – the activity should show the possibilities that computing offers as well as
the excitement brought by its application,
Understanding – the participants should be able to understand how the equipment
would be involved in the activity work,
Science – computing involves fundamental concepts and principles that should be
presented to the participants. We should ensure that after the activity they feel
confident to use them and find them in the real world,
Applications – to show the broad range of application of computing in the world
around us. Computing is used everywhere, in different areas such as medicine, life
sciences, arts and in different places such as at school, in the local shop, in the car, on
the road, in the cinema,
Gamification and Competition – how the activity can be a game or a competition
between the students in a class, in a school or in many schools,
Cater for all abilities – the activity should be suitable for children between age of
eleven and seventeen. The workshop should aim to have an output recognisable by the
average student as well as be challenging enough for the high achievers,
Gender Diversity – the activity should work toward improving gender balance and
demonstrating that Computer Science is for everyone.
1.3.3. Educational Aims
The following aspects of Computer Science have been carefully selected to give an
introduction to new technology, teach school students fundamental principles and demonstrate
visual representation of content as a way to attract artistic children:
The concept of virtual reality and its application in the real world,
Data structures, operations and algorithms related to data structures,
Human-computer interaction.
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1.4. Deliverables
The following materials were developed:
A virtual reality game, a software application developed in Unity Game Engine [21]
integrating Oculus Rift headset [22] which introduces school students to virtual reality
and data structures,
A flexible workshop that can fit between one hour and one hour and a half,
An introductory talk and supporting materials which can be used by the supervisor of
the activity,
Answer sheets to support children’s learning,
A discussion regarding important aspects of secondary school teaching of Computer
Science.
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Chapter 2
Background
In this chapter, a discussion of the educational and the technical background of the project is
provided. Furthermore, it includes an analysis of the current state of teaching computing in
schools in the UK, and the equipment required for the project.
2.1. Educational Background
We now discuss problems related to the computing in schools and the reforms undertaken by
the UK Government in order to improve the National Curriculum.
2.1.1. Problems in Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
There are several problems within the ICT area which lead to a decrease in the number of
students choosing Computer Science as a subject at school and at university and as a career
path. According to the statistics there is a fall of 33% in only three years of students taking
General Certificate of Secondary Education(GCSE) in ICT and 33% in six years of students
taking A-levels ICT subjects and over the period of 2001-2009 the total number of students
taking A-level Computing felt by 57% [23]. A survey in the US found that 80% of the
schoolchildren do not know what the Computer Science majors learn (Figure 5) [24].
Figure 5. Student Impression of What CS Majors Learn [24].
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2.1.1.1. Demotivating material
We now discuss some of the reasons for the relationship between the school education and the
popularity of the subject and the lack of motivation for schoolchildren to study.
ICT teaches digital literacy and focuses on the application of the computer systems such as
word processing. However, Computer Science is a discipline that explores the world around
us, it enables students to understand the design and the principles used in developing
computer software and hardware. As a result of the confusion between Computer Science and
ICT, the students lose their motivation for studying Computer Science and therefore, do not
perform well in ICT and Computing subjects. Comparison of A and A* grades of A level
examination in 2015 are illustrated below (Figure 6) [25]. Note that Computing and ICT are
one of the worst performed subjects.
Figure 6. Grade A* outcomes compared to grade A outcomes 2015 [25].
2.1.1.2. Gender Imbalance
Another problem that the society is facing is that there are less female students in the subject
than the male students. According to teachers that took part in a research about female
students’ experience in studying ICT, Computer Science subject is still seen as a ‘geeky’ and
the classroom atmosphere has influence on the girls - they do not feel competent in coding
and feel in isolation in the Computing classes [26]. As a result, there is a significant difference
between the number of female and male students taking computing courses. In fact, the least
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number of girls have selected Computing as an A level subject [25] as opposed to Sociology
and Psychology where the majority of the school students are female (Figure 7).
Figure 7. Difference between male and female A-level subject choices [25].
According to Pete Marshman, a teacher and speaker in the CAS Conference in 2015 there are
many reasons why girls are not as interested in Computing as boys [27]. Here is a list of a few
of the reasons:
Girls feel less confident about their CS abilities,
Girls prefer to use the computer for social interactions,
Girls need to experience creativity and communication and problem solving relevant
to problems that are society-relevant,
Girls need to feel supported and valued,
Girls enjoy a collaborative and comfortable working environment.
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2.1.1.3. Teacher Training
Teachers require training as most of them are not specifically qualified to teach this subject. A
way of developing teacher’s knowledge is necessary because the 20th century’s methodology
is no longer compatible with the technology revolution in 21st century. Figure 6 shows that a
big proportion of teachers are ‘unqualified’, which in some cases might mean that the students
are as good or better than their teachers (Figure 8) [28].
Figure 8. Percentages of teachers teaching ICT not classified by the Department as ‘qualified’ in the subject, by Government office region (England, 2010) [28].
Moreover, this activity has been demonstrated to teachers in different events including the
British Science Week and the Science Extravaganza [29] and received positive feedback. It is
going to be available for teachers who seek help in engaging the schoolchildren in the
Outreach projects website [30]. The deliverables of this project include presentation that can
be used in the class and the required equipment is available as well so the workshop can be
reused. There is a list of Computer Science topics and terms discussed in the activity, so the
teacher can prepare before the workshop.
Figure 9. Introduction to data structures using the game at ScienceX [29].
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2.1.2. National Curriculum Reforms
In 2012 The Royal Society [31] developed a curriculum to replace the old ICT one. Key
points in the “Shut down or Restart?” [28] project are providing support and development to
the teachers and improve the understanding of the schools for the scope of the computing. In
order to achieve this ICT terminology was replaced by:
Digital Literacy – “the basic skill or ability to use a computer confidently, safely and
effectively”,
Computer Science – “the scientific discipline of Computer Science, covering
principles such as algorithms, data structures, programming, systems architecture,
design, problem solving etc.”,
Information Technology – “the assembly, deployment, and configuration of digital
systems to meet user needs for particular purposes”.
Figure 10. Suggested terminology reform [28].
2.2. Technical Background
In this chapter, we discuss the technology that is involved in the development of the project.
2.2.1. Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality is a computer-generated 3D environment that allows users to feel like they are
present in the environment. The users are able to “immerse” in artificial worlds or to explore a
complex data [32]. The first video device of virtual reality was patented in 1962 by Morton
Heilig [33], but it did not get much popularity until 2010 when the Oculus VR company was
formed and created the Oculus Rift headset [22].
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2.2.1.1. Oculus Rift
The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset, the first available in the consumer market. There
are previous versions of the headset which are only for developers and this project is
developed using Development Kit 2. It has two organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays
for each eye. When the image of the two displays is combined the user gets a feeling of
presence in the generated world. There is a positional tracker using infrared light and a
gyroscope to capture the movement of the user and translate it to the virtual world.
Figure 11. A child using Oculus Rift DK2 headset at Science Spectacular 2015 [34].
2.2.1.2. Alternatives
Other devices that offer the virtual reality functionality are Gear VR [35] and a cheap virtual
reality simulator – Google Cardboard [36]. They make use of a smart phone attached to the
front part of a device so that it acts as a screen. HTC Vive [37] and PlayStation VR [38] are
other devices that are designed for use in virtual reality simulations but their release dates are
in February and October 2016 respectively so were not considered for use in this project.
There exists a virtual environment called CAVE [39] where the user is fully immersed within
the virtual world. However, more time is required for a setup from logistics point of view and
it is not effective for teaching students for a workshop.
2.2.2. Game Engines
The game engines are platforms used by developers to create games. They provide a platform
abstraction, so the same game can be played on various platforms [40]. The core functionality
the game engine provides is a rendering engine, a physics engine and collision engine [41].
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The user is concentrated on creating better games rather than thinking about details, there is
also an Asset store where developers could reuse existing objects or import ones generated by
other 3D modeling applications.
2.2.2.1. Unity Game Engine
The game engine used in the project is Unity Game Engine [42]. It provides all facilities
needed for virtual reality development and is compatible with the Oculus Rift. The engine is
free for commercial use [43] and supports the majority of the popular game platforms.
Figure 12. The activity opened in Unity Game Engine.
2.2.2.2. Alternatives
The Unreal Engine [21] is another game engine. It is built using C++. The Unity Engine was
selected for building the game because it provides all facilities for the developer to use C#
programming language to develop the game. C# allows quicker development as it is a high-
level language. Moreover, Unity Game Engine is preferable choice for beginners because it is
easier to use and the community forum provides support [44].
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Chapter 3
Design and Implementation
When designing the workshop, there are several decisions made regarding the theme and the
scope of the project. In this chapter a description of the design and implementation of the
activity is presented.
3.1. Theme selection
The main goal of the project is to inspire school children and demonstrate that Computer
Science is interesting and tightly connected to the real world. In order to achieve this, it was
decided to use equipment which is not just a computer but something exciting that children
usually do not have access to. Several tools were tested including a brain sensing headband -
Muse [45], gesture recognition device – Leap Motion [46] and a virtual reality headset –
Oculus Rift. The Muse headband does not provide a particular pattern of the waveforms that
could be used, the Leap Motion device was considered interesting when demonstrated on a
CAS Regional Conference in 2015 [47] but the equipment that got most attention was the
Oculus Rift virtual reality headset tested at the CAS Regional Conference 2015 [47] and
Science Spectacular [34] and among the students at the university.
Figure 13. Playing with Oculus Rift at Science Spectacular 2015 [34].
After choosing the equipment, the theme of the project was selected. The workshop should
not just entertain the children but should be educational too. It should convince children that
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Computer Science is important for the society and to demonstrate its applications in the real
world and allow children to learn new concepts.
Two possible themes were proposed: how to trick our mind and teaching fundamental
concepts of Computer Science. The first theme was inspired by a study by the Stanford
University where virtual reality avatar control by a person has been tested [48]. The initial
idea was to generate a 3D model of the room where the workshop was going to take place,
add virtual obstacles and ask the participants to walk in the virtual room. The activity was
going to explore person’s behavior in a virtual reality. However, this cannot be used for a
flexible workshop since it requires the same room every time the activity is done or
generation of different 3D models for each room, which is not efficient.
Figure 14. Testing the ‘Homuncular Flexibility’ project at the University of Stanford [48].
The second idea was more feasible. Using Oculus Rift was a prerequisite to introduce virtual
reality which was the first educational concept. The statistics show that schoolchildren are
struggling with computing (Figure 6) and that there is a gender diversity issue (Figure 7).
Finding a solution to those two problems is important in order to ensure that there would be
enough professionals working toward future innovations.
According to the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau UK) more women are playing video
games today. Moreover, the highest percentage of users (22%) are people between the age of
eight and seventeen (project’s target age) and 99% of them have played a game over the last
six months (Figure 14), most of the players were interested in puzzle and word games (Figure
15) [49].
17
Figure 15. Video game audience by age [49].
Figure 16. Favourite video game genre [49].
The solution to the problems of Computer Science education and gender imbalance that is
proposed in this project is to create a virtual reality educational game that teaches
schoolchildren to fundamental concepts of Computer Science.
3.2. Structure of the Workshop
This project is delivered to schools in the form of a workshop with duration between one and
one and a half hours. The workshop caters for all abilities. Its structure can be adapted to the
age group and level of knowledge of the school students. The overall structure of the activity
is:
Introduction talk (10 – 15 minutes) – an overview of virtual reality and Oculus Rift
headset is given. The supporting slides can be seen in Appendix A,
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The Imaginarium (20 – 25) – playing the virtual reality game. A manual and answer
sheet are provided (see Appendix A),
Discussion (15 – 20 minutes) – definitions of data structures and searching algorithms
relating them to the levels of the game are given. In addition, a linked list unplugged
[50] activity is introduced. This is the final part of the workshop and we finish it by
introducing Human-computer interaction.
The workshop is flexible so the order of the talk and the game can be changed. We start the
activity with KS3 students with the game to ensure better understanding of the concepts by
firstly visualizing them using the game and later relate them to the different levels. During the
workshop with KS4 students we begin with the talk and discuss the educational content of the
project followed by the game where the schoolchildren apply the knowledge gained during
the talk.
3.3. The Talk
A talk is implemented in order to support the workshop and discuss the concepts related to the
educational aims presented in Section 1.3.3. The target audience of this workshop are students
in Key Stage 3 and 4.
According to the curriculum for school pupils [50] in those stages they should be familiar
with several key algorithms such as sorting and searching, data structures, be aware of the
efficiency of the algorithms and understand that computing is a problem-solving activity.
These are the concepts discussed in the talk. The game developed for the activity attempts to
demonstrate how those concepts are seen in the real world.
Furthermore, the workshop involves Kinesthetic learning techniques [51], because they make
the activities more dynamic and enjoyable for the students [52]. For example, successful
activities are used in the CS Unplugged project [53]. In this workshop an “unplugged” activity
related to linked list data structure is introduced.
In addition, another area of Computer Science is discussed – Human-computer interaction
(HCI) or understanding the relationship between the people and the computers. This is
illustrated by examples for good and bad design, in particular design of game levels, and will
hopefully attract more girls to the subject.
19
Figure 17. An example of good (left) and bad (right) designs.
The slides of the presentation supporting the talk could be seen in Appendix A.
3.4. The Imaginarium Game
The Imaginarium is a game inspired by The Escape room [54] and similar games that have
become popular recently. The game develops players’ knowledge as well as their teamwork.
The game concept was confirmed by many studies ( [52], [55], [56]) and the following was
outlined:
Many teachers used words like “fun” and “excitement” (often together) when making their
suggestions, “Making computing fun!” was a typical comment [57].
This statement is the cornerstone of the work done by this project.
3.4.1. Implementation
The game is implemented using Unity Game engine discussed in section 2.2.2.1. The core
functionality and interaction with the objects is written in C#. The game engine provides
features for generating basic shapes such as cubes and spheres but in designing the rooms
more complex shapes were needed. Some of them have been generated using two 3D
modeling applications: Blender [58] used for objects in the rooms and Autodesk Maya 3D
[59] for the generation of the rooms, other have been downloaded from the Assets Store [60]
that Unity provides.
20
3.4.1.1. Initial Version
The initial version of the game is accommodating all of the tasks on one plane. The levels are
designed as room separated by walls from each other (Figure 18). All players start from the
same room and the aim is to reach specific room.
Figure 18. Initial version of The Imaginarium game.
Most of the levels in this version are simple and do not expose the whole capability of the
virtual reality. Some of them required interaction with the objects in the rooms and others
answering questions related to the concepts discussed in the talk before schoolchildren start
playing the game.
The game was firstly used at the Discover Computer Science Day at the University of
Manchester that took place in December. The feedback was reviewed and new design and
implementation decisions were made. Therefore, a new version of the game was released in
February 2016.
3.4.1.2. Final Version
The final version of the project provides a platform with four levels. Each level is related to a
different concept such as:
Stack – a data structure represented as a container of tennis balls (Figure 19),
Binary search – finding a box that contains specific number (Figure 20),
Decision tree – building a decision tree by answering questions (Figure 21).
21
Figure 19. Room 1 - a stack data structure represented as a ball container.
Figure 20. Questions and answers grouped as a decision tree.
Figure 21. A level demonstrating binary search.
22
Figure 22. Words and acronyms related to Computer Science hidden in the room.
There is a special level where the players are required to find words and acronyms in a room.
They should find their meaning in the talk in the second part of the workshop when types and
operations on data structures are discussed (Figure 22). The team which finds all of the
meanings wins a prize. This is the competition part of the game, which aims to use the
competitive attitude that schoolchildren have in order to entertain them.
The structure of the game in this version is changed. While in the initial version all of the
rooms are accommodated on one plane without almost any visual transition between the
levels, in this version a ‘middle state’ is developed. It is called ‘Main menu’ (Figure 23) and
aims to not only separate the levels but to give chance to the player to choose the next level.
The game is flexible as there is no limit on the levels that can be added in the future. It is also
adaptive because the new levels added can target any age group.
Figure 23. The Main Menu where the next level can be selected.
23
3.4.2. Organisation
The activity requires teamwork as the students are separated into teams. A student helper, is
provided for each team. In the choice of the student helpers, it is ensured that there are male
and female students showing schoolchildren that Computer Science is not only for boys. It
will, hopefully, break the stereotype where the STEM subjects are seen as subjects for
“geeks” because the workshop provides male and female role models [61].
Each team member plays in a single level. The players wear the headset. They describe
everything they see in the room, while the rest of the team try to guess the room the player is
located in and the task using the manual provided. Some of the rooms require students to fill
in an answer sheet given to each team. All groups go through the same rooms but in different
order so they need to keep track of the order in which they visit the rooms. The order is later
used to demonstrate decision tree data structure and following a path in a tree.
The supporting materials can be found in Appendix A.
3.4.3. Difficulties
The initial problem encountered is finding compatible versions of the software for Oculus Rift
DK2 and the Unity Engine. The two companies are releasing new versions every month and
at the end of last year they broke the compatibility between the two products. The new
versions have been released soon after the start of the project.
The image quality that Oculus Rift DK2 provides is bad and there is a delay between the head
movement and the displayed image. A settings change in the Unity editor and control of the
object rendering improved the quality. A new customer facing version of Oculus Rift was
released in the end of March 2016. It is expected to provide better image quality. The code
submission of the project was before the new release so the new version was not used.
A Unity bug has been found which was causing all rooms to become dark after transition
from the Main menu [62]. A way around it was found but the bug is not fixed yet so it should
be taken into consideration if new levels are developed.
24
Chapter 4
Results and Evaluation
In this chapter, we discuss the delivery of the project and provide an evaluation of the
feedback collected.
4.1. Delivery of the Workshop
The workshop is delivered to several events including science fairs organised by The
University of Manchester and a school visit in a local school. We now provide an overview of
the related events. Detailed list of the schools involved can be seen in Appendix B.
4.1.1. Discover Computer Science Day
The Discover Computer Science Day is for students who are interested in taking a Computer
Science degree [2]. The workshop was delivered in two sessions to 50 students from 18
different schools. The groups were a mix of Year 12 and 13 students.
Figure 24. An 'unplugged' activity teaching linked list at the Discover Day [2].
An introduction talk was given aiming to explain the fundamental concept of data structure
and an ‘unplugged’ activity explaining the concept of linked list was used followed by
introduction to the virtual reality. The schoolchildren were separated into five groups
25
supervised by student helpers. Children played the initial version of The Imaginarium game
for 15 minutes. Later, an introduction to Human-computer interaction was provided.
All students completed the levels and provided answers to the questions in the answer sheets
(see Appendix A). The workshop finished with a discussion on Human-computer interaction.
4.1.2. Explore Computer Science Day
The event [3] was attended by 15 students in Year 10 (14 and 15 years old) from The King
David High School [63]. The final version of the game was used in the workshop. The
activity started with introduction to virtual reality and testing the Oculus Rift headsets. The
teams had 20 minutes to play the game.
Figure 25. Children testing the Oculus Rift at Explore Day [3]
Once all teams completed the levels, a talk discussing each level and relating it to a concept of
Computer Science was given. The last 10 minutes of the workshop were used for answering
questions that schoolchildren had. Google Cardboard [36] was available for them to try and
compare with Oculus Rift, some children wanted to play the game again, others received a
quick lesson on how the Unity Game Engine [42] works and how the game is made.
26
Figure 26. Student playing the game (front) and Google Cardboard (back) at Explore Day [3].
4.1.3. Fairfield High School for Girls
The Fairfield High School for Girls is one of the best performing local schools [5]. The
workshop was attended by sixteen girls from Year 7 – the youngest group of the project’s
target audience. The school visit offered valuable insights in how girls interact with
unfamiliar equipment and approach problems related to Computer Science.
The students in this school started the game by looking at the manual and exploring the
navigation required for each level, which helped them easily go through the levels with
minimum stress and great concentration. In contrast, during the workshops at Explore and
Discover days when the groups were mixed – female and male students – the schoolchildren
did not read through the manual beforehand. As a result, they needed more time to complete
the levels and were impatient and disorganised.
An explanation of this behavior was discussed with the supervising teacher at a debrief - the
girls are better in planning and collaboration; they feel more comfortable when they have
steps to follow. Furthermore, according to Marshman [27] girls enjoy a comfortable and
collaborative working environment.
Surprisingly, some of the schoolchildren were afraid from the virtual reality, but once one of
their team mates tried it they all accepted to play the game. The fact that they have never seen
27
virtual reality before was impressive but they enjoyed the experience and were curious about
the technology.
Figure 27. Children playing the VR game during school visit [5].
4.1.4. Related Events
While choosing the equipment and selecting the theme of the workshop, two events were
attended: Science Spectacular [34] and CAS Regional Conference [47]. During the Science
Spectacular day virtual reality demos were offered to schoolchildren of different ages. The
target audience during CAS Regional Conference was primary and secondary school teachers.
People were generally more interested in the Oculus Rift headset.
Figure 28. A child exploring virtual reality for a first time at Science Spectacular [34].
Once the initial version of the project was released, a school visit in Otetz Paisii Secondary
School [64] in Bulgaria was organised. The aim of this school visit was to compare
28
schoolchildren’s reaction to a new technology in two different countries – a developed
country such as the United Kingdom and developing country such as Bulgaria. The result was
that in both cases the schoolchildren were excited, but only two Bulgarian students have heard
of virtual reality, as opposed to the UK where the majority of schoolchildren have seen virtual
reality before.
Figure 29. Virtual reality demo in Otetz Paisii Secondary School, Smolyan, Bulgaria [64].
The final version of the game was demonstrated at three events: DigiLab [65], British Science
Week [4] and Science Extravaganza [29]. Overall positive feedback and suggestions for
potential improvement of the project were provided by university staff and students,
schoolchildren and parents, and teachers.
Figure 30. Demonstrating the project to a PhD student at the DigiLab [65].
29
4.2. Feedback Collection
In order to further improve the contents of the activity, feedback was collected after each
workshop.
The approach used to get feedback from the schoolchildren is taken from the Agile
Methodology [66] – using post-it notes. After each session, schoolchildren were asked to
answer three questions using post-it notes:
- What did you like?
- What did you dislike?
- What can be improved?
There are several advantages of this approach. Firstly, this ensures that the answers are
anonymous. Secondly, most of the people see it as a game and this would potentially generate
more honest answers. Finally, having specific questions to answer gives a structure of the
answer and leaves less chance of writing information that is not relevant to the project.
Sample of the feedback received can be seen in Appendix C.
4.3. Evaluation of Feedback
In this chapter, an evaluation of the project aims and objectives and a discussion on the
changes made based on the feedback will be provided.
4.3.1. Aims
The workshop designed achieved the project aims - to inspire schoolchildren, focus on the
gender balance and deliver an activity that is suitable for school students of different ages,
abilities and genders. This was tested and proved at several outreach events including a school
visit in a girls-only school specifically selected to assess the influence of the project on female
school students.
Every game level was related to a concept in Computer Science and the talk provided
additional information. There were school student comments that particularly relate to the
educational aims of the project. Schoolchildren state in the feedback forms for the Explore
Day that they have learned data structures such as stack and queue, virtual reality and that
they have used Oculus Rift (see Appendix C) so it implies that the educational aims were met.
30
Figure 31 shows the results from the official feedback collected at the Explore Computer
Science Day. All participants of the workshop that submitted a feedback form agree that they
enjoyed the activity. Detailed feedback is provided in Appendix C.
Figure 31. Results of an official Explore Day feedback form [3].
4.3.2. Objectives
We now present an evaluation of the objectives set at the beginning of the project. Quotes
from the feedback notes are also included in the description of the feature.
Excitement – students state that the game was “Great fun” and that they “Loved it”,
Understanding – some of the students have used Oculus Rift before but they still
managed to gain new knowledge and said that the workshop was “Very informative,
easy to pick up”,
Science – Students commented that they liked the link between data structures and real
world, teachers said they will use the workshop as a reference in future lessons for
data structures,
Applications – examples of applications of virtual reality was given, by the end of the
workshop students knew that it is used not only for playing games, but in the military,
medicine, fashion and movies,
Gamification and Competition – students listed that they liked the activity because “it
wasn’t just a thing to look around, it was a game” and that they “liked working in a
team”,
31
Cater for all abilities – the workshop was delivered to schoolchildren between eleven
and seventeen years old, it was also demonstrated to university staff, teachers and
parents,
Gender Diversity – the activity was demonstrated in mixed groups and in girls-only
schools. All schoolchildren enjoyed the workshop and some commented that “it was
brilliant”.
4.3.3. Changes Made Based on Feedback
There were three major changes to the workshop according to the feedback. The first change
was that the “unplugged” activity was excluded. The activity was accepted well with positive
feedback overall but it was time consuming. Most of the negative feedback that the workshop
received was due to the short time spent with Oculus Rift. As a result, the time spent with the
virtual reality game was increased whereas the ‘unplugged’ activity was removed.
The second major change was related to the architecture of the game. The initial version did
not give enough confidence to the students that they have completed a level, so a ‘middle
land’ between the levels was introduced. In addition, harder levels were created as a few
students commented that the levels were easy for them.
The third major change was with regards to the order of the game and the talk. In a debrief
with the school teachers and the supervisor of this project was suggested to start the workshop
with the virtual reality game when the schoolchildren are in Year 7 – 10. In this way, they
have experience with the equipment and is easier for them to relate the levels to the Computer
Science concepts discussed later in the talk. However, starting with a talk is more suitable for
students in Year 11 – 13 as they have better understanding of the concepts, especially students
interested in Computer Science degree.
32
Chapter 5
Conclusions
This chapter presents an overview of the work presented in this report and discusses
achievements and areas of future work.
5.1. Overview
This report presented an outreach project that aims to inspire school students in different ages,
focus on gender balance and create flexible workshop that can be reused from teachers,
university staff and students to teach schoolchildren in KS3 and KS4 to fundamental concepts
of Computer Science.
In addition, it provides a discussion about the Computer Science education in the schools,
gives an overview of a few organisations that provide support to teachers and students and a
description of outreach events aiming to promote Computer Science among schoolchildren.
5.2. Achievements
The work in this project promoted Computer Science among school students in KS3 and KS4
and created an educational package of virtual reality game, a talk and supporting material
used to teach schoolchildren to data structures, binary search and introduced them to Human-
computer interaction. The structure of the workshop is flexible and adaptive depending on the
target audience.
Furthermore, one way of attracting school students to Computer Science is by introducing
them to a new technology that they do not have access to. The Imaginarium is a virtual reality
game played using Oculus Rift headset. It has only four complete levels so far but can be
easily expanded in future works.
5.3. Limitations and Future Work
There are two main limitations that should be addressed. The first limitation is the image
quality of the virtual reality. School students listed this as a main problem during the feedback
sessions. They were experiencing headache when wearing the headset for a long time, even
though they enjoyed the game. One way of solving this problem is to test other virtual reality
33
headsets released after the code submission of this project as they provide better resolution of
the screen. Oculus Rift DK2 used in this project is an experimental equipment, so it is used
for quick tests of the games developed. The latency and pixilation issues have been fixed in
the consumer version of the headset released in 2016 according to a recent review [67].
The second limitation is that the movement inside the virtual reality is restricted because the
controller used for the game allowed only movement forwards and backwards. The school
students commented that they would like to be able to use the whole body to interact with the
virtual environment. A solution to this limitation is to use a gesture recognition device such as
Leap Motion [46] or the HTC Vive [37] virtual reality equipment which provides cameras and
controllers to allow full immersion in the virtual reality. The Oculus Rift controllers that will
be available later this year are another alternative that should be considered [68].
34
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39
Appendix A: Supporting Materials
The following are slides used in the introduction talk, game manual and answer sheets used
by the school students to play the game.
43
INSTRUCTIONS:
- keep track of the order in which you visit the rooms
- ask the player what does he/she see?
- read through the manual and try to guess which is the
current room
- help the player to solve the task using the hints in the
manual
FOR ALL ROOMS:
After you complete the task in the room you
will be presented with a menu with options
for the next room.
In order to select the option on the left-hand
side press BUTTON 3 (blue), to select the
option on the right-hand side press BUTTON
2 (red).
ROOMS
Words Inspector
Objects: A sofa, a table, chairs, a ball, boxes.
Aim: Find 8 words and acronyms and write them down in the answer
sheet.
When you find them or give up searching press Button B.
Guess what their meaning is. HINT: listen to my presentation
later.
Navigation: Button B - press it when you have finished searching the words.
Hints
Hints
Hints
44
Divide and Conquer
Objects: Cardboard boxes
Aim: The boxes contain numbers. The boxes are ordered in
ascending order from left
to right.
You need to open the box in order to see the number.
Find the box containing number 81.
In the Answer sheet write down the number of opened boxes.
The team that has opened the least number of boxes will win a
prize.
Navigation:
Button A - Select a box. Click multiple times to go through the
boxes.
Button Y - Open the box. A number will be displayed above the
selected box.
Button B - Press the button to proceed to the next level.
Pop the ball
Objects: Container with balls.
Aim: Reach the pink ball in the container.
Navigation:
Button A - Select a ball. Click multiple times to iterate through the
balls.
Button Y - Move selected ball out of the container.
Button B - Press the button to proceed to the next level.
Hints
45
The tree of answers
Objects: Questions in rectangles.
Aim: Answer to the questions with the Left answer or the Right answer
(see Navigation section).
Start from the question that the red arrow points at.
When you complete the task press Button B to proceed to the
next level.
Navigation:
Button X - To answer with the “Left answer”
Button B - To answer with the “Right answer”
Hints
46
Scorecard
Order
Room Name
1
2
3
4
Divide and Conquer Room
Number of opened boxes: ………
Words Inspector
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Answer Sheet
Team:
48
Appendix B: List of Schools Involved in
Activities
Discover Computer Science Day
1. Altrincham Grammar School for Girls
2. Barnsley College
3. Bury College
4. Bury Grammar School (Boys)
5. Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic High School Rochdale
6. Darwen Aldridge Community Academy
7. Great Sankey High School
8. Lancaster Girls Grammar School
9. Loreto College
10. Nelson and Colne College
11. Parrs Wood High School (Parrs Wood Technology College)
12. Runshaw College
13. St Ambrose College
14. Stretford Grammar School
15. The Manchester Grammar School
16. Whalley Range 11-18 High School and Business and Enterprise College
17. Winstanley College
18. Xaverian College
Explore Computer Science Day
1. The King David High School
School Visit
1. Fairfield High School for Girls