User experience testing and co-designing a digital game for broadening participation in computing with and for elementary school children

Broadening participation in computing is more than providing access to computing for students; it requires reimagining and transforming teaching and learning to be more inclusive and culturally sustaining and it begins with elementary school children. In this study, we report on the fourth cycle of a participatory design-based research project in which researchers and children co-design culturally responsive-sustaining computational learning environments. We conducted user experience testing and co-design sessions with seven children on one level of a game-based learning environment in development. We model children's discourse through Epistemic Network Analysis models to investigate their feedback on character design, game narratives, and introductory activities. Our findings reveal 1) children's positive response to characters with counternarratives and visible intersectional identities in computing, 2) positive and negative experiences and feedback from children on game activities and narratives, and 3) suggestions for improvement.