Having fun in learning formal specifications

I. S. W. B. Prasetya, Craig Q. H. D. Leek, Orestis Melkonian, Joris ten Tusscher, Jan van Bergen, J. M. Everink, Thomas van der Klis, Petar Kostic, Rick Meijerink, Roan Oosenbrug, Jelle J. Oostveen, Tijmen van den Pol, Mike de Vries, Wink M. van Zon

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

There are many benefits in providing formal specifications for our software. However, teaching students to do this is not always easy as courses on formal methods are often experienced as dry by students. This paper presents a game called FormalZ that teachers can use to introduce some variation in their class. Students can have some fun in playing the game and, while doing so, also learn the basics of writing formal specifications in the form of pre- and post-conditions. Unlike existing software engineering themed education games such as Pex and Code Defenders, FormalZ takes the deep gamification approach where playing gets a more central role in order to generate more engagement. This short paper presents our work in progress: the first implementation of FormalZ along with the result of a preliminary users' evaluation. This implementation is functionally complete and tested, but the polishing of its user interface is still future work.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2019 IEEE/ACM 41st International Conference on Software Engineering
Subtitle of host publicationSoftware Engineering Education and Training, ICSE-SEET 2019
PublisherIEEE
Pages192-196
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9781728110004
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2019
Event41st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training, ICSE-SEET 2019 - Montreal, Canada
Duration: 25 May 201931 May 2019

Conference

Conference41st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training, ICSE-SEET 2019
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal
Period25/05/1931/05/19

Keywords

  • Gamification in teaching formal method
  • Gamification in teaching software engineering
  • Teaching formal method

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