The Finite State Trading Game: Developing a Serious Game to teach the Application of Finite State Machines in a Stock Trading Scenario

In this paper a new methodology to teach the topic Finite State Machines to upper vocational school students is proposed. A Serious Game s o- lution was created consisting of nine learning objectives split into categories about the basics of Finite State Machines, the parallels between Finite State Machines and stock trading and the application of Finite State Machines in o r- der to construct Artificial Intelligence. This paper focuses on the existing para l- lels between Finite State Machines and the concepts of automated stock trading. The learning objectives were determined using Bloom’s Tax onomy and impl e- mented into the Serious G ame “The Finite State Trading Game” (FSTG). In this turn-based trading game, the user strives to beat a N on -Player Character by skillfully trading shares at various difficulty levels. In order to evaluate the S e- rious Game approach, a pre-test and post-test situation was performed with stu- dents of a local upper vocational school class at the Technical University of Munich. The analysis of the results showed major improvements of the st u- dents’ knowledge about Finite State Machines for every tested statement. Given the success of this test setting, FSTG appears to be a promising solution to be used to support or even substitute traditional ways of teaching.      «

In this paper a new methodology to teach the topic Finite State Machines to upper vocational school students is proposed. A Serious Game s o- lution was created consisting of nine learning objectives split into categories about the basics of Finite State Machines, the parallels between Finite State Machines and stock trading and the application of Finite State Machines in o r- der to construct Artificial Intelligence. This paper focuses on the existin...     »