Is drawing video game characters in an hour of code activity a waste of time?
Ashok Ram Basawapatna, Alexander Repenning, Mark Savignano, Josiane Manera, Nora Anna Escherle, Lorenzo Repenning · 2018
Broadening participation in computer science necessitates balancing motivational and educational concerns. Without fully understanding potential trade-offs, Hour of Code-like tutorials may actually backfire by initially attracting students to participate, but gradually reinforcing the notion that programming is hard and boring. Previously, we analyzed and compared two Hour of Code tutorials: a tutorial that walks students through the creation and programming of a 3D-Frogger game, including the drawing of their own 3D characters, to a programming puzzle where students solve discrete coding challenges. Using an analysis based on retention, the comparison indicated higher levels of perseverance in the game creation activity. However, does the ability to draw characters really motivate students to program? Conflicting theories of positive and negative effects of drawing onto perseverance include that drawing might increase levels of participant ownership or that drawing may just be wasting time better spent programming, especially in the time constrained Hour of Code context. To gain insight, this study uses draw times of over 8,000 projects from a game creation Hour of Code activity in 2016. Initial results indicate that higher average draw time per character corresponds to increased program lengths and students with the highest average draw times per character continued to program beyond the end of the activity