Games in engineering: Exploring the use of spreadsheet-based Sudoku within a chemical process optimisation class

Abstract

Game-based learning has long been recognised to facilitate learning through various ways such as improved motivation among students and improved cognitive skills (critical thinking, content understanding). Consequently, educators in different fields have incorporated various games into their teaching practice. Building on these efforts, this work sought to introduce spreadsheet-based Sudoku to a Chemical Process Optimisation course and to gather students’ feedback on the initiative. A 4 × 4 Sudoku problem was presented using two implementation methods (integer space formulation and binary space formulation) as part of a class-based tutorial. Thereafter, the students were tasked to solve a 6 × 6 problem using both approaches and a 9 × 9 problem using any preferred approach. The findings from the submitted assignment as well as responses to an exit questionnaire suggested that the initiative led to an enhanced interest while giving the students an opportunity to learn new skills. Furthermore, it was observed that the success of the students was not likely to be influenced by the problem size or the students’ familiarity (or lack thereof) with Sudoku or the relevant software platforms as long as adequate tutorials were given beforehand. Finally, it was observed that the students had a preference for and obtained better success with the binary space formulation though it was more involving in its setup procedure as compared to the integer space formulation. The former gave a linear programming problem that solved easier than the non-linear programming problem obtained using the integer space formulation.