Survey Questions and Results
 
Questions

Rating Scale

Average

Deviation

0

1

2

3

4

5

   
1. The adventure game was interesting to write.

1

1

0

11

27

36

4.24

0.95

2. The adventure game was fun to write.

3

3

5

17

27

21

3.64

1.28

3. The adventure game was technically difficult to write.

6

12

10

19

21

8

2.80

1.47

4. Writing the adventure game helped me to further understand the course material.

4

6

7

20

22

17

3.33

1.41

5. The adventure game served as a capstone where I was called on to use my knowledge of many of the subjects covered in the course.

1

3

4

18

30

20

3.75

1.11

6. Overall opinion of using adventure games as the subject of a programming assignment.

4

2

5

12

24

29

3.80

1.37

   
Rating scale information:
  0 - Strongly disagree
  1 - Disagree
  2 - Slightly disagree
  3 - Slightly agree
  4 - Agree
  5 - Strongly agree
   
Written Response Survey Questions:
 

How does the adventure game compare to other programming assignments that you've had?
Sample Responses:

  • "It was more interesting since there was a wide variety of ways it could be written; it wasn't required that it be implemented in any particular way. I liked that."
  • "It wasn't as hard as some, but much longer and harder to debug. It was fun, very time consuming."
  • "Much more lengthy, and you must have a good grasp of all the concepts covered in class. (Unfortunately, I didn't.)"
  • "It covered more in a single program than most. It also showed how many trade offs there are in programming. I believe it was an excellent program to write - but more time was needed to clean up and improve the code."
  • "Crazy assignment"
  • "It was interesting so you WANTED to do it."
  • "It had an outcome that would make one move to get it done to play with it."
  • "Very long!"
  • "Very, very difficult. But once one knows the secret of handling rooms, it turns to be only very difficult."
  • "It gave me a greater sense of accomplishment since it actually did something."
  • "It allows much more creative thinking than the other program assignments."
  • "It was something that challenged me."
  • "Assignment wise, it was the most 'useful' program I have written, and best demonstrates my ability to solve a problem and to write code."
  • "It was definitely more design oriented than other projects."
  • "Longest, hardest, most interesting."
  • "Very tedious, time consuming."
  • "Understand a lot of minor things high-level languages tend to 'neglect' or 'assume.' It made understanding how 'C' does things easier (pointers and such)."
 

Please give any additional comments that you might have regarding the adventure game assignment.
Sample Responses:

  • "I wish now I had more time to make it better."
  • "The program was not too difficult but it was complex due to the size. You had to keep track of many things."
  • "It was enjoyable to write the room descriptions. It was hard in logic, but fun once I figured it out."
  • "The idea of doing an adventure as an assignment is a good one. Such programs are fairly large, and makes the programmer make a lot of real-world programming decisions."
  • "Just fun!"
  • "Great to promote, encourage creativity."
  • "Very worthwhile, and will be a program which I will include in my portfolio of programs - the first written for a class."
  • "In some ways complex, but made for a good learning experience."
  • "The student needs more of these type programs to enhance their creativity. It lets them show their own style."
  • "Keep assigning them."
  • "Use pictures."

Follow the twisty link back to the nifty adventure assignment....


Web page created 15 August 2001 by John K. Estell, ECCS Department, Ohio Northern University.