Gamification as learning scenario in programming course of higher education.

Abstract

Gamification in higher education could be a bad strategy if you only consider creating a game environment for learning, but particularly for a programming course can represent the element of motivation to develop specific skills. This article presents a pilot learning environment using gamification, for which emotional, social, narrative and progress dynamics were applied. The mechanics consisted of challenges and opportunities, where some of components were badges and a leadership board. The educational strategy was applied during period January - April 2017 in Programming course at Technological University of Puebla-Mexico; through surveys, students' acceptance of intervention was questioned and academic results of experimental group were compared with those obtained in the last 8 years with students from previous courses. The main conclusion of the work indicates that intervention of proposal in classroom offered necessary motivation to students for achievement of challenges and can be applied to other subjects.