Girls and Boys Playing Educational
Games Together – Opportunities and
Design Challenges in the
Gaming4Coding Project
Peter Mozelius, Lisa Sällvin &
Niklas Humble
Mid Sweden University- Östersund Sweden
Gävle University - Gävle Sweden

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Jämtland a part of Mid Sweden

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The Swedish Project Team
• Peter Mozelius – Project leader
• Lisa Sällvin – PhD and works with Geek Girls
• Niklas Humble – Gävle University

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Gaming 4 Coding
• Gaming4Coding is an Erasmus-projekt with the aim
of developing a game where K-12 students should
learn how to program in Python
• At the same time as the game must be joyful to
play, it should be a game where girls should feel
welcome to play and learn

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A European collaboration
This will be carried out in collaboration with a game
developing company in Germany, and a university and a
teacher organisation in Spain, and schools in different
countries. That the girl friendly design works will also be
tested by the Makermovent organisation 'Geek Girls
Sundsvall’ in Sweden. The game, and other project
deliverables will be accessible from the project's web portal

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Ingenious Knowledge – Cologne

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UCM in Madrid

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Our common first initial study
Mozelius, P., Humble, N.,Sällvin, L. , Öberg, L. , Pechuel, R. & Fernández-Manjón, B.
(2022). How to get the girls Gaming: A Literature Study on Inclusive Design. In
Proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL
2022). Reading, UK : . pp. 396--402.
A literature study where the found main factors for a girl
inclusive game design are:
Creativity and customisation, Character diversity,
Collaborative interaction, and Exploration without violence
Conclusion: Girl inclusive design instead of Girly games

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A second study on Educational Game Design
•At the same time Niklas built and
evaluated an Educational Escape Room
Escape with Python

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Escape with Python

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Evaluation for Refurbishing the Rooms
Humble, N. & Mozelius, P. (2022). Refurbishing the Educational Escape Room for
Programming : Lowering the Threshold and Raising the Ceiling. In Proceedings of
the 16th European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL 2022). Reading,
UK : . pp. 280--287
Some findings:
• Gameplay and mechanics should be consistent throughout the game, or
at least in the beginning of the game, especially if the game content is
directed towards novices. Content, or challenges, of the game should be
presented clearly and exciting, with appropriate level of difficulty for the
target group. To facilitate learning and engagement, the game should be
perceived as usable by the students. For example, by relating to school
content or developing skills of interest and of relevance for the
students.

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Merging the studies
Later we merged these two studies to one:
Mozelius, P. & Humble, N. (2022). Design Factors for an Educational Game where
Girls and Boys Play Together to Learn Fundamental Programming. In 11th EAI
International Conference: ArtsIT, Interactivity & Game Creation. (ArtsIT Conference
Proceedings)
Several common factors in the studies and the
Scratch idea of having:
A low threshold - Wide walls - A high ceiling

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Our Preliminary Framework

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Three days ago in Valencia
Parts of the framework were confirmed in the testing of three
games for learning programming
Games were tested by girls only in Sundsvall, Sweden
Sällvin, L., Mozelius, P. and Humble, N. 3 Games 4 Coding - Do Girls Feel
Welcome, In The 17th International Technology, Education and
Development Conference : INTED 2023. Valencia
More testing to come during 2023 !!

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Questions & Discussions
? !
Peter Mozelius - Department of Computer and System Science, Mid Sweden University