Lempel: Developing the pattern recognition skill in computational thinking through an online educational game

Computational thinking is a key set of skills for the 21st century’s digital literacy. Taking advantage of computers to solve complex problems automatically will be helpful in most future jobs. Among the skills that comprise Computational Thinking, pattern recognition plays an important role in managing and compressing information. To foster the development of this skill among primary and secondary school students, we have developed Lempel. 

In this game, we propose a set of challenges of increasing complexity in which players have to provide a compressed version of the information presented. Lempel’s fine-grained interaction data logging system allows us to use Learning Analytics techniques to better understand how the learning of this skill takes place.