Efficient and Playful Tools to Teach Unix to New Students

TL;DR

This paper introduces an engaging, game-based approach to teaching Unix to new students, combining autonomous learning with practical assessments and open-source tools to enhance learning effectiveness.

Contribution

It presents a novel, playful course design integrating a treasure hunt game, wiki resources, and automated grading, improving Unix education methods.

Findings

Enhanced student engagement through game-based learning

Automated grading streamlines assessment process

Open-source tools facilitate course adoption and adaptation

Abstract

Teaching Unix to new students is a common tasks in many higher schools. This paper presents an approach to such course where the students progress autonomously with the help of the teacher. The traditional textbook is complemented with a wiki, and the main thread of the course is a game, in the form of a treasure hunt. The course finishes with a lab exam, where students have to perform practical manipulations similar to the ones performed during the treasure hunt. The exam is graded fully automatically. This paper discusses the motivations and advantages of the approach, and gives an overall view of the tools we developed. The tools are available from the web, and open-source, hence re-usable outside the Ensimag.