Questioning video games' influence on CS interest

Authors:
Betsy James DiSalvo;Amy Bruckman
Affiliations:
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Venue:
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games
Year:
2009

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Abstract

In this paper, we examine the relationship between digital games and interest in computer science. When we undertook this research, our goal was to expand upon past work that explores video games as a positive influence on students' interest in CS. We utilized both quantitative and qualitative research methods with a large technically and academically competent subject pool. We hypothesized that subjects with more years and intensity of playing video games would have a stronger interest in computer science. While we did find a small relationship, the proportion of the total responses accounted for by the relationship is only 8%. This suggests that while gaming may be correlated to an interest in CS, it is a small correlation and other variables must be considered more influential.