Description of the course
The course introduces students to basic concepts of mobile design and programming on MIT APP Inventor®. The application provides students an intuitive, visual programming environment that everyone can use to build fully functional apps for Android® phones, iPhones®, and Android/iOS® tablets.
Description of participants
This is an elective course targeting undergraduate students enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications program at the Foreign Trade University. The course was attended by 32 in the second semester of academic year 2022 – 2023 all of whom are enrolled in the 2nd year of studies.
Description of gamified design thinking activities
The course offers rich activities, which are well aligned by design thinking principles. For example, one of these activities challenged students to build a game named “Sky war” that, as the name suggests, simulates a war in the sky. Players engage in the game by controlling one of the objects participating in the battle. Students were encouraged to further consider a meaningful game termination condition.
Activities were organized in the following steps.
Step 1. Problem definition.
Students worked in groups to define the problem that they needed to solve.
Step 2. Game design.
Students brainstormed to introduce as many ideas as possible for game implementation. This included game characters, effects, and other elements.
Step 3. Solution selection.
After introducing several possible solutions, students evaluated the suggested ideas by analyzing pros and cons as well as implementation difficulty. Based on this analysis they identified one solution for prototyping.
Step 4. Game interface design.
Students worked in their teams on game design. Team members were assigned roles, such as creating or collecting assets and resources, for example images or sound, for game implementation.
Step 5. Prototype game implementation.
After designing the game interface, students programmed a fully functional game.
Step 6. Game testing and evaluation of results against requirements.
Students tested the functionality of the game and then deployed it for users to use on mobile phones. They received feedback from the educator as well as target users on game improvements.
