Teaching software engineering by means of computer‐game development: Challenges and opportunities

Software‐engineering education programs are intended to prepare students for a field that involves rapidly changing conditions and expectations. Thus, there is always a danger that the skills and the knowledge provided may soon become obsolete. This paper describes results and draws on experiences from the implementation of a computer game‐development course whose design addresses problems in software‐engineering education by improving students' abilities in four areas: (1) problem solving; (2) the application of previously learned knowledge; (3) the use of independent learning; and (4) learning by doing. In order to better understand this course's effect on students' performance in a software‐development project, I investigated 125 students' performance in a 1‐year senior‐project course. Results of this study show that the students who had taken the computer game‐development course became more successful in the senior‐project course than the students who had not taken it.