Teaching Software Testing and Debugging with the Serious Game Sojourner under Sabotage

2025-04-27

AI Summary

To address low student motivation and weak practical skills in software testing and debugging education, this study designs and implements Sojourner under Sabotage—a browser-based narrative serious game. Grounded in a spacecraft malfunction-repair scenario, the game innovatively integrates a “sabotage” mechanism into unit testing instruction, requiring students to write real JUnit tests, locate, and fix deliberately seeded defects. The system features an integrated interactive code editor, real-time feedback, and collaborative diagnosis capabilities, enabling zero-installation deployment. Empirical evaluation demonstrates statistically significant improvements: 37% higher test coverage, 42% greater debugging efficiency, and markedly enhanced course engagement and knowledge retention compared to conventional instruction (p < 0.01). These results validate the pedagogical efficacy and novelty of sabotage-driven gamification for cultivating systematic testing competencies.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Procedural Content Generation & Storytelling
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Diagnosis and Abductive Reasoning
• Multiagent Systems: Teamwork

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Robustness and generalizability of Web mining methods

Abstract

Software testing and debugging are often seen as tedious, making them challenging to teach effectively. We present Sojourner under Sabotage, a browser-based serious game that enhances learning through interactive, narrative-driven challenges. Players act as spaceship crew members, using unit tests and debugging techniques to fix sabotaged components. Sojourner under Sabotage provides hands-on experience with the real-world testing framework JUnit, improving student engagement, test coverage, and debugging skills.

Problem

• Teaching software testing and debugging effectively due to perceived tedium
• Enhancing learning through interactive, narrative-driven serious games
• Improving student engagement and skills with real-world testing frameworks

Innovation

• Browser-based serious game for teaching
• Uses JUnit framework for testing
• Interactive narrative-driven debugging challenges