Reviewing Learning Software Engineering Through Serious Game Development

Manal Kharbouch, José Alberto García-Berná, Juan Manuel Carrillo de Gea, Joaquín Nicolás Ros, José Ambrosio Toval Álvarez, Ali Idri, José Luis Fernández Alemán

Abstract: Serious games (SGs) are known as games designed for educational purposes rather than mere entertainment. Although their integration into software engineering (SE) education is a relatively new trend, it is spreading gradually, and thus gaining growing attention in the academic field. In this paper, we first investigated how SGs’ design and development have been used as a pedagogical approach in SE education. Second, we analyzed the perceived complexity and potential effectiveness of this approach from the literature. Last, we addressed its resulting challenges and opportunities in the realm of SE education. The search for studies was carried out in leading search resources namely, Science Direct, IEEE Xplore, ACM, Scopus, as well as Wiley resulting in a set of six selected studies. Our study’s results show that the design and development of SGs could be used to further motivate students, improve their SE learning experience and make it more enjoyable, and promote the use of these SGs. Moreover, this pedagogical approach was considered effective for a holistic understanding of SE courses, and better knowledge and skills acquisition.