This instructor-facing submission outlines the implementation of a client-led project-based learning (PBL) model in an upper-level game and simulation development course. The project centered on developing functional AR simulations for real clients. Drawing on professional documentation through Game Design Documents (GDDs), authentic feedback cycles, and self-efficacy theory, students experienced iterative development with external stakeholders. Survey data and focus-group feedback revealed increases in student motivation, enjoyment, and self-efficacy compared to previous faculty-led iterations. The submission includes a conceptual pedagogy model (Figure 1 in the paper), adaptation pathways for different instructional contexts, and recommendations to integrate client feedback structures without formal external partners.

ACM Digital Library Entry

Role-play activities have been used for many years to help students engage with abstract content and build understanding in a fun and collaborative way. They are particularly popular in teaching object-oriented programming and concurrency, as it is relatively straightforward for students to take on the role of objects within a software system.

Software testing is typically seen as a dry and uninteresting discipline. There are several reasons for this: it involves many abstract concepts, the process of designing and writing software tests can be quite repetitive, and students struggle to see the value of thorough testing without real-world experience. These challenges create an environment where teaching software testing is particularly challenging compared to other areas of computing. To address this, we designed role-play games with the goal of improving student learning and engagement in a software testing class.

Incluso! is a card game designed for groups of 3–5 players that introduces and explores the concept of universal design in digital products through collaborative play. Its goal is not only to educate but also to cultivate empathy, something that is often underdeveloped in students who are encountering accessible design principles for the first time. The game encourages players to consider real-world barriers that individuals with disabilities face, all within an engaging, conversation-driven format.

ACM Digital Library Entry

This lab helps students gain experience and proficiency with the agile practice of Mob Programming using Test-Driven Development. Mob Programming involves having an entire team working together to solve one problem at a time. By working closely together, the team shares understanding and enforces quality standards. The Classroom Mob Programming Game involves students in all the formal practices of Mob Programming within a single class or lab session.

The game uses tabletop role-playing game design patterns to produce an authentic learning experience for students. Students earn experience points by practicing the different Mob Programming roles, and new abilities are gained as they level up. This provides scaffolding for their learning: students move from simple to more nuanced practices as they gain levels. These abilities represent legitimate Mob Programming techniques, and so the learning objectives and gameplay are intrinsically linked.

ACM Digital Library Entry

There are many reasons why it is important for students to think about the ethical implications of computer science and the technology that they use and create. At the beginning of the Covid pandemic all teachers faced the sudden transition to necessary remote learning. The fast pivot to online learning required changes to existing lessons, or even creating totally new ones. Shifting to lessons about ethics proved to be a valuable substitution for lesson plans (LP) that required access to resources no longer available to students from home. Presented here are a series of lessons that could be taught in any modality that were adapted for middle and high school learners during the spring of 2020 for their science and AP CS Principles courses. Although the activities and artifacts that are described for students were originally created for online synchronous sessions, they could easily be adapted for face-to-face, online or hybrid classrooms. The subjects of these lessons focused on the ethical impacts of computing by looking at past, present, and emerging technologies.

The Micro:Vote project is designed as an introduction to text- based programming through a 12-week project aimed at 11 to 13 year olds. The project is designed as a School-University partnership whose aim is to highlight the role of creativity and social impact in computing through the design of digital voting posters using the BBC micro:bit and MicroPython.

Adopting a Design Studio approach, the project scaffolds students in the creation of a physical computing voting system and informative poster, to gather responses on an issue of social importance within the community. Through the lens of Human- Computer Interaction, students investigate the role of computing in activism and learn to implement data and control structures.

ACM Digial Library Entry

This lab helps students gain experience and proficiency with algorithm analysis and the concept of time complexity. Students will not write code, but rather will identify mystery code based on run times for different input sizes. 

This assignment provides students with four short code segments and a program with a graphical interface. The provided program allows students to enter an input size and run one of four ‘mystery’ algorithms.  Elapsed time is displayed after each run. Students must match code segments with 'mystery' algorithms.  This requires that students plot run times for different input sizes for each 'mystery' algorithm, identify the asymptotic run time (big-O) of each code segment, then perform the matching. 

Before attempting this assignment, students need a basic understanding of algorithm analysis, equivalent to one or two lectures on the topic and the ability to read and understand code written by someone else, including loops and arrays.

This classroom activity uses Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) to introduce students to Java. Students work in small teams to answer a series of questions about relational and conditional operators. The instructor facilitates interaction among teams, offers guidance and encouragement, and summarizes key concepts.

Learning Objectives:
* Evaluate boolean expressions with relational operators (<, >, <=, >=, ==, !=).
* Explain the difference between assignment (=) and equality (==) operators.
* Evaluate boolean expressions that involve comparisons with &&, ||, and !.
* Evaluate complex logic expressions based on operator precedence.

This classroom activity uses Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) to introduce students to Java. Students work in small teams to answer a series of questions about variables and assignment. The instructor facilitates interaction among teams, offers guidance and encouragement, and summarizes key concepts.

Learning Objectives:
* Identify components of the "hello world" program.
* Write Java code to declare int and double variables.
* Explain what it means to assign a value to a variable.
* Leverage the prior knowledge and experience of others.

This classroom activity uses Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) to introduce students to Python. Students work in small teams to answer a series of questions. They run examples in a Python Shell and discuss the results. The instructor facilitates interaction among teams, offers guidance and encouragement, and summarizes key concepts.

Learning Objectives:
* Evaluate boolean expressions with comparison operators (<, >, <=, >=, ==, !=).
* Explain the syntax and meaning of if/else statements and indented blocks.
* Evaluate boolean expressions that involve comparisons with and, or, and not.
* Evaluate complex logic expressions based on operator precedence.