Students often find introductory computing courses challenging, possibly due to their difficulties with motivation and engagement. One established strategy instructors use to overcome these hurdles is to introduce games and puzzles. We developed CS Connections, a web-based application inspired by the New York Times Connections game. CS Connections presents students with a grid of elements to categorize based on shared characteristics. These elements can be text or code snippets, and their common links may involve runtime behavior, output, or conceptual relationships. By solving puzzles through correct grouping, students can review recently-learned material or actively explore deeper programming concepts. We deployed the tool in two offerings of our university’s CS1 course, and present our initial results on student retention, perceptions and ease of use. Our initial results suggest that CS Connections is favorably perceived and students find it useful, but student interest declines over the weeks as topics become more complex and the novelty of the tool wears off. Instructors found the interface intuitive, but had difficulty creating novel and relevant puzzles. However, by encouraging the exploration of programming concepts in an interactive format, the tool shows significant promise as part of the active learning paradigm. Open-sourced for broader access, CS Connections is available online for educators in both CS and other subjects to integrate into their classrooms. This paper includes instructions for educators interested in using the tool.
