Promotes A Fun Learning Experience For Exchange Students

SoC and SoT use a ‘snake and ladder’ game powered by Computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) topics and questions to help students boost their knowledge, skills, and confidence.


APU now accepts Master’s Degree exchange students, and they are the first batch to arrive.

Computing exercises are key to understanding learning but doing the same programming code every day can be tedious.

Recently, APU’s School of Computing & Technology (SoC & SoT) developed an edutainment concept that uses a ‘snake and ladder’ game to challenge students in a fun learning environment.  

Although this game was popular during childhood, the snakes and ladders game: Let’s Play RAC (Roll, Answer & Climb) is unique because it includes topics and questions related to computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the dice are rolled from start (lower square) to finish (upper square).

Students can learn while having fun, as well as develop social skills by interacting with other players of a team. If they correctly answer the questions, they can roll the dice to move up.

French exchange students, Barthelemy Fidelio Pierre Drabczuk and Mikael Ferreira De Almeida won first place and received a wireless keyboard, which they immediately put to use in class.

Exchange students from École Nationale Supérieure d’Informatique pour l’Industrie et l’Entreprise (ENSIIE), France, Barthelemy Fidelio Pierre Drabczuk and Mikael Ferreira De Almeida (team 2) won first place, bringing home a wireless keyboard and mouse. They were excited to receive the prize and put it to immediate use in class. 

The other team from France’s École Supérieure d’Ingénieurs Léonard de Vinci (ESILV) was Matthieu Jeremy Thibaut and Louis Nils Liard (team 1) and Jean Pierre Cailleau and Mohammed Rayane Messaada (team 3).

Rounding up the participating teams were two non-exchange students, Xing Chyi and Thomas Rahmadan Bannatyne Clark (team 4), who are first semester Master’s Degree students.

Each participant received a set of recycled straws with the APU logo printed on the cover as a token of participation.

Instead of just being in the classroom, students got an indirect workout session at APU Atrium with interactive questions in the ‘snake and ladder’ game.

Mikael Ferreira, who represents other exchange students, stated that this was a good coping mechanism for their studies and relieved that the method used in this game is ideal for them.

With dynamic questions in the ‘snake and ladder’ game, they can get on the right learning path to overcome specific obstacles or misconceptions in learning Computer Science Engineering and AI, which will help them in the future. 

“It is very good for identifying our weaknesses and strengths, as well as increasing our understanding of subject matter,” he said.

He added that they learned about APU from their French lecturer and decided to come to Malaysia for an exchange programme because APU is well known for its top-notch digital technology courses and as a Premier Digital Tech Institute.

When asked if APU’s courses and modules met their expectations, he says, “We expected more coding sessions in some modules and are grateful for all the guidance we received from our APU lecturers.”

All exchange students completed one semester of study at APU’s Bukit Jalil campus and have now returned to their respective universities to complete their studies.

According to Ts. Dr. Vinothini Kasinathan, the organising committee’s head, the competition was held to find a more enjoyable learning method by combining edutainment elements. 

“We could do better than this. Imagine if the students could answer the questions in real exam mode via this game which we got insights into specific areas where students struggle,” she said.

Other committee members who contributed to the success of this competition include Ms Tham Hoong Ching, Ms Nur Amira Abdul Majid, and Ts. Nor Anis Asma Sulaiman.

Team 4 was the first to the top, but when the dice were rolled, they ended up on the snake's head and lost first place to team 2.