Geração de documentos de design de jogos educacionais a partir de templates orientados ao Pensamento Computacional

Abstract

This thesis investigates how to support the authoring of educational games oriented to Computational Thinking by tightly linking pedagogical objectives, game mechanics, and assessability. It proposes the GDD2PC model, which makes explicit the correlation between Computational Thinking pillars (abstraction, algorithmic thinking, decomposition, and pattern recognition) and families of mechanics, and derives an operational Game Design Document template tailored to teaching practice, including a concise onepage format. Both were instantiated in the Hefesto Game Lab tool, designed to reduce authoring effort, standardize document quality, and preserve flexibility across educational contexts. The research followed a Design Science Research process: requirements elicitation, model and template construction, tool implementation, and user-oriented evaluation. Technology acceptance was assessed with the TAM, complemented by pedagogical alignment and applicability. Results show mean perceived usefulness around 4.0, perceived ease of use near 4.1, and behavioral intention at 3.8 on a 1–5 Likert scale, with high instrument reliability (high Cronbach’s alpha). Evidence indicates that the approach reduces authoring ambiguity, speeds up iteration cycles, and strengthens alignment between Computational Thinking pillars and design decisions, contributing to a more efficient and replicable teaching practice.