Gamifying Activities in a Higher Education Course.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	Gamifying Activities in a Higher Education Course.
Authors:	Campos, André¹ andre@dimap.ufrn.br, Batista, Edwyn¹ edwynluis@yahoo.com.br, Signoretti, Alberto² albertosignoretti@uern.br, Gardiman, Renato¹ renatorqg@gmail.com, Madeira, Charles¹ charles@imd.ufrn.br
Source:	Proceedings of the European Conference on Games Based Learning. 2015, Vol. 1, p117-124. 8p.
Subject Terms:	Gamification, Video games in education, Higher education, Mobile learning, *Computer programming education, Bring your own device policies
Abstract:	Some professional areas requires deep practical experience in order to master an ability. In the context of programming, for instance, the learning-by-doing approach does not only help students to better understand a concept, but also facilitates the identification of problem-solving patterns. Thus, it involves the exhaustive study of variants and the replication of solutions applied to different contexts. However, the maintenance of the student practice for the entire academic period is a challenge for any teacher. In order to keep student motivation, an online e-learning environment, named Kodesh (Koding Shell), was developed as a way to provide to facilitate student practice. Some elementary gamified elements based on PBL (Points, Badges and Leaderboards) approach were introduced in the environment. These components proved to be an essential feature for the motivation of some students, but not for all of them. This teaching strategy confirmed some pitfalls, but also some potentials, which could be improved in a new version of the environment. Besides Kodesh, a set of game-based dynamics were also introduced during the lecture classes. In the classroom, students could join groups to collaborate and compete against others groups by solving challenges and puzzles. Again, this approach also showed its pitfalls and possibilities, which were useful for defining a suite of requisites for a mobile game following the "bring your own device" (BYOD) approach. This paper presents a summary of the reflexions and lessons learned from five academic semesters applying those gamification strategies in a higher education introductory programming course. The learned lessons resulted in a collection of guidelines that was used to drive the improvement of the Kodesh environment and the development of a mobile-based game named Desafio which means Challenge in Portuguese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Education Research Complete

Description
Abstract:	Some professional areas requires deep practical experience in order to master an ability. In the context of programming, for instance, the learning-by-doing approach does not only help students to better understand a concept, but also facilitates the identification of problem-solving patterns. Thus, it involves the exhaustive study of variants and the replication of solutions applied to different contexts. However, the maintenance of the student practice for the entire academic period is a challenge for any teacher. In order to keep student motivation, an online e-learning environment, named Kodesh (Koding Shell), was developed as a way to provide to facilitate student practice. Some elementary gamified elements based on PBL (Points, Badges and Leaderboards) approach were introduced in the environment. These components proved to be an essential feature for the motivation of some students, but not for all of them. This teaching strategy confirmed some pitfalls, but also some potentials, which could be improved in a new version of the environment. Besides Kodesh, a set of game-based dynamics were also introduced during the lecture classes. In the classroom, students could join groups to collaborate and compete against others groups by solving challenges and puzzles. Again, this approach also showed its pitfalls and possibilities, which were useful for defining a suite of requisites for a mobile game following the "bring your own device" (BYOD) approach. This paper presents a summary of the reflexions and lessons learned from five academic semesters applying those gamification strategies in a higher education introductory programming course. The learned lessons resulted in a collection of guidelines that was used to drive the improvement of the Kodesh environment and the development of a mobile-based game named Desafio which means Challenge in Portuguese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	20490992