The Role of Computer Games in Teaching Object-Oriented Programming in High Schools - Code Combat as a Game Approach

Computer games are an effective approach that enhances student’s motivation and innovation. Many modern teaching strategies have been implemented in the process of teaching different subjects such as learn to do, explore to learn, cognitive and meta-cognitive learning, and gamification. Gamification is an effective approach to make a positive change in students' behavior and attitude towards learning, to improve their motivation and engagement. This paper presents the role of computer games in enhancing high schools computer science students’ motivation and engagement through gamification. It’s illustrated the implementation of Code Combat as a teaching model for teaching object-oriented programming (OOP) which considered a tough topic in the computer science field. Code-Combat is a gamification platform that uses games elements to make coding interesting and engaging for students. It consists of different levels, where each level covers a specific topic in computer science and structures based on object oriented methodology such as(variables, conditions, loops and recursion). Key-Words: Gamification, motivation, high school students, Code Combat, object-oriented programming. Received: January 24, 2021. Revised: March 20, 2021. Accepted: March 31, 2021. Published: April 2, 2021.