Teaching and Learning Programming and Software Engineering via Interactive Gaming

secret https://www.codehunt.com Teaching and Learning Programming and Software Engineering via Interactive Gaming http://pex4fun.com Tao Xie University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign In collaboration with Nikolai Tillmann, Jonathan de Halleux, and Judith Bishop (Microsoft Research) Related Papers/Resources: https://sites.google.com/site/asergrp/projects/ese

Testing Tool  Educational Gaming Dynamic Symbolic Execution (Pex) secret Support Pex for Fun:Interactive Gaming for Teaching and Learning https://www.codehunt.com http://research.microsoft.com/pex/ http://pex4fun.com

Agenda Background Coding Duels Educational Platform Experiences Conclusion

Background • Dynamic Symbolic Execution (DSE) • aka. Concolic Testing • [Godefroid et al. 05][Sen et al. 05][Tillmann et al. 08] • Instrument code to explore feasible paths http://research.microsoft.com/pex/

http://research.microsoft.com/pex/

Dynamic Symbolic Execution in Pex Choose next path Solve Execute&Monitor void CoverMe(int[] a) { if (a == null) return; if (a.Length > 0) if (a[0] == 1234567890) throw new Exception("bug"); } Constraints to solve a!=null a!=null && a.Length>0 a!=null && a.Length>0 && a[0]==123456890 Observed constraints a==null a!=null && !(a.Length>0) a==null && a.Length>0 && a[0]!=1234567890 a==null && a.Length>0 && a[0]==1234567890 Input null {} {0} {123…} a==null T F a.Length>0 T Done: There is no path left. F a[0]==123… F T http://pex4fun.com/HowDoesPexWork

Coding Duels 1,463,179 clicked 'Ask Pex!'

Coding Duels Pex computes “semantic diff” in cloud secret reference implementation vs. code written in browser You win when Pex finds no differences secret For more info, see our ICSE 2013 SEE paper: http://web.engr.illinois.edu/~taoxie/publications/icse13see-pex4fun.pdf

Behind the Scene of Pex for Fun behavior Secret Impl== Player Impl Player Implementation class Player { public static int Puzzle(int x) { return x; } } Secret Implementation class Secret { public static int Puzzle(int x) { if (x <= 0) return 1; return x * Puzzle(x-1); } } class Test { public static void Driver(int x) { if (Secret.Puzzle(x) != Player.Puzzle(x)) throw new Exception(“Mismatch”); } }

Coding DuelsFun and Engaging Iterative gameplay Adaptive Personalized No cheating Clear winning criterion

Social Experience Community High score lists, leaderboard Live feed http://pex4fun.com/Community.aspx http://pex4fun.com/Livefeed.aspx

Agenda Background Coding Duels Educational Platform Experiences Conclusion

Teaching and Learning

Skills Being Trained Induction Problem solving/debugging Program understanding/programming Testing Specification writing

Coding Duels for Course Assignments@Grad Software Engineering Course • Observed Benefits • Automatic Grading • Real-time Feedback (for Both Students and Teachers) • Fun Learning Experiences http://pexforfun.com/gradsofteng

Coding Duel Competition@ICSE 2011 http://pexforfun.com/icse2011

Example User Feedback Released since 2010 “I used to love the first person shooters and the satisfaction of blowing away a whole team of Noobies playing Rainbow Six, but this is far more fun.” X “I’m afraid I’ll have to constrain myselfto spend just an hour or so a day on this really exciting stuff, as I’m really stuffed with work.” “It really got me *excited*. The part that got me most is about spreading interest in teaching CS: I do think that it’s REALLY great for teaching | learning!”

Usage Scenarios of Pex4Fun • Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) • Course assignments (students/professionals) • Student/professional competitions • Assessment of testing, programming, problem solving skills for job applicants

Code Hunt: Resigned As Game https://www.codehunt.com/

End-User Programming On Mobile Devices TouchDevelop: Bring your own devices, program anywhere, run immediately on devices V.S. https://www.touchdevelop.com/

TouchDevelop https://www.touchdevelop.com/

TouchDevelop cont. • Simple script language • No user-defined type • No class inheritance • Rich API support • Easy access to various sensors and resources • Powerful cloud services • Download/publish scripts • Store information of entities (e.g., scripts, users) • Answer queries Full-fledged platform for EUP on Mobile Devices https://www.touchdevelop.com/

Rapid Increase of TouchDevelop Popularity Oct 2013 vs. 17322 scripts Feb 2013

Summary: Testing Tool Educational Gaming DSE/Pex secret Support Pex for Fun: Interactive Gaming for Teaching and Learning https://www.codehunt.com http://pex4fun.com https://www.touchdevelop.com/

Testing Tool  Educational Gaming http://research.microsoft.com/pex/ http://pex4fun.com Support secret Q & A Thank you! Contact: taoxie@illinois.edu http://www.cs.illinois.edu/homes/taoxie/ Related Papers/Resources: https://sites.google.com/site/asergrp/projects/ese

Summary: Testing Tool Educational Gaming DSE/Pex secret Support Pex for Fun: Interactive Gaming for Teaching and Learning https://www.codehunt.com http://pex4fun.com https://www.touchdevelop.com/

Teaching and Learning Programming and Software Engineering via Interactive Gaming