Gamification of Computer Science Algorithms

Educational games have emerged as powerful tools for enhancing learning experiences across various subjects and age groups. This project represents an innovative approach to combining educational content with highly interactive and engaging gameplay to teach important Computer Science concepts such as data structures and Algorithms. Existing implementations offer visualizations of algorithms and data structures, but lack the interactivity required for active participation of students. This project aims to foster active learning by allowing students to solve examples through directly selecting, swapping and manipulating nodes and edges of graphs. This game presents a platform for college students to learn and actively practice the Heap data structure, Heapsort algorithm, and minimum weight spanning tree Algorithms such as Kruskal and Prim. Built using JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Three.js, the game incorporates a 3D interactive environment to pilot these concepts. The platform includes two modes: a training mode, allowing penalty-free practice, and a regular mode with a scoring system, a leaderboard and limited lives to foster engagement, challenge and competitiveness with peers. Multiple levels of difficulty, immediate feedback, and a carefully tailored hint system were designed to support stepwise learning and enhance interactive experience. Anonymous Data collection of number of mistakes, time spent and change of score per level, runs in the background without storing identifying information on the students. An interface for instructors allows professors to visualize students' data, track improvement, and analyze students' comprehension and performance. Gamification of additional algorithms is currently being developed.