A mobile game for learning programming: students' reactions in view of their attitudes, experiences and expectations

Numerous studies support the use of educational games in teaching, especially in the case of difficult subjects such as computer programming. In this paper, we contribute to this agenda by reporting students' reactions to training featuring a new mobile educational game that supports learning JavaScript programming. We employ technology-enhanced training effectiveness model to investigate the impact of students' prior experiences, expectations, and attitudes on their reactions to training. The obtained results bring several novel insights on the role of these factors, including a negative (rather than positive) impact of experience with video games on expectations regarding the app or a small (rather than large) positive impact of experience with video games on reactions to training. The findings can be useful in designing new educational games and putting them into educational practice.