Abstract:

STEAM-related knowledge and skills are taught in classes under common themes to develop students’ applied knowledge, critical thinking ability, creative thinking ability, and problem-solving ability, elevating their competitiveness and preparing them for the workplace in the future. In education, computational thinking (CT) is a problem-solving thinking process, which consists of five steps: problem decomposition, abstraction, algorithm, evaluation, and generalization. Many studies have indicated that CT ability and programming learning are closely related, and that students’ understanding of CT can be improved by learning programming. Therefore, when planning and designing STEAM course activities, programming is frequently combined with the use of robots to complete specific tasks, realizing STEAM education. Technology-assisted instruction will inevitably become a future educational trend. Augmented reality (AR), which applies virtual objects to the real world through computer technology, is widely applied in fields such as education, exhibitions, and gaming.

To practice the ideas of STEAM through programming learning, this study proposed a program design course based on thematic AR game production. The course addresses the skills that multimedia design students would need in their future career and requires them to solve problems with their professional knowledge and skills. Unlike robots that only use programs to solve certain problems, AR game production corresponds to the core tenets of STEAM, which can be divided into aspects of science (e.g., cognitive psychology and gamified learning), technology (e.g., AR applications and AR production tools), engineering (e.g., process of game production or outcome display), mathematics (e.g., application of mathematics formulas to game production), and art (e.g., design of game scenes, objects, and user interface). The course was taught using the 6E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Enrich, and Evaluate) learning strategy.

This study selected first-year multimedia design students (N = 40), who were expected to work in fields related to game production after graduation, as the study participants. The participants were asked to work on a project that involved designing AR games for digital exhibitions. The 7-unit program design course integrates AR with the core tenets of STEAM. The following instruments were adopted in this study: (1) A computational thinking scale—which was used to assess the students’ abilities in problem abstraction, decomposition, algorithm, evaluation, and generalization. (2) A programming test—which was designed according to teaching content to evaluate students’ programming ability. (3) The ARCS Learning Motivation Scale—which was used to measure the motivation of students in learning the content or participating in activities of the AR game–based program design course, thereby observing the changes in students before and after the course.

The result significantly improved students’ learning motivation. Significant improvement was observed in the decomposition and evaluation aspects of the students’ computational thinking. This signified that developing multimedia design students’ ability to integrate and apply knowledge to solve problems or output projects is beneficial to honing their professional ability in their future workplace, making the incorporation of the technology introduced in this study into STEAM education essential in the future.

Keywords:

Programming instruction, STEAM, Augmented Reality, Computational Thinking, Learning Motivation.