Abstract:

Introductory programming courses are some major subjects for undergraduate computer science students; however, first-year students are often overwhelmed by these topics. Games and graphically rich examples in education can motivate students, help them to understand algorithms more quickly, and develop computer programs more enjoyably. Different approaches to teaching introductory programming can be found in the literature: some researchers prefer structured programming first, while others object-orientation first. In this paper, we focus on teaching and learning OOP (object-oriented programming) while we assume that students already have some basic knowledge of structured programming. In the article, we briefly overview some of the basic concepts of OOP, such as classes and objects, fields and methods, constructors, encapsulation, abstraction, inheritance, polymorphism, overriding, and overloading. Next, we deal with the difficulties and problems in teaching and learning OOP that students and teachers might encounter. In the main part of the paper, we discuss the possibilities of using games, serious games, and visual programming environments for teaching and learning OOP. Finally, we draw some conclusions.

Keywords:

Object-oriented programming, games, visual programming environments, teaching and learning programming.