research-article

Analyzing Gamification Impact on a Mastery Learning Introductory Programming Course

Authors:

Rafael G. de Pontes,

Dalton D. S. Guerrero,

Jorge C. A. de FigueiredoAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '19: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Pages 400 - 406

https://doi.org/10.1145/3287324.3287367

Published: 22 February 2019 Publication History

Abstract

In recent years, the use of game elements in non-game contexts has been widely adopted in different contexts, one of which education. Concerned with investigating the effect of gamification on student engagement in the context of an undergraduate Introductory Programming course that applied that Mastery Learning approach, a gamified web application was developed and integrated to a pre-existing online platform used to conduct the syllabus. N = 60 students were randomly assigned to one of two groups: an experimental group with access to the gamified platform and a control group without access to it. The randomization guaranteed a similar number of students in relation to advancement in the course, in each group. The main features explored in the gamified approach were anonymous weekly leaderboards, many categories of badges and personal record-tracking. Each student profile was private. A first 90-minute experiment showed that the experimental group solved 37% more exercises than the control group, on average. From that point onward, student activity was monitored for a period of four weeks, until the end of the course. Though student-activity decreased over time as students completed the course, the experimental group increasingly solved more exercises per week compared to the control group (at least 46% more, on average). After the course was concluded, the experimental group answered a survey which showed that the badges were the feature that motivated them the most. This research's source code is available and may be easily replicated or incremented.

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Lepe-Salazar FCortés-Álvarez T(2024)Towards an effective methodology for the integral gamification of classesMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-024-19846-wOnline publication date: 18-Jul-2024
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Drissi SChefrour ABoussaha KZarzour H(2024)Exploring the effects of personalized recommendations on student’s motivation and learning achievement in gamified mobile learning frameworkEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-024-12477-6Online publication date: 29-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12477-6
Karnalim OSimon Chivers W(2023)Gamification to Help Inform Students About Programming Plagiarism and CollusionIEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies10.1109/TLT.2023.324389316:5(708-721)Online publication date: Oct-2023
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Index Terms

Analyzing Gamification Impact on a Mastery Learning Introductory Programming Course
1. Applied computing
  1. Education

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cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '19: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

February 2019

1364 pages

ISBN:9781450358903

DOI:10.1145/3287324

General Chairs:
Elizabeth K. Hawthorne
Union County College, USA
,
Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Sarah Heckman
North Carolina State University, USA
,
Jian Zhang
Texas Woman's University, USA

Copyright © 2019 ACM.

© 2019 Association for Computing Machinery. ACM acknowledges that this contribution was authored or co-authored by an employee, contractor or affiliate of a national government. As such, the Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free right to publish or reproduce this article, or to allow others to do so, for Government purposes only.

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Published: 22 February 2019

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Cited By

Lepe-Salazar FCortés-Álvarez T(2024)Towards an effective methodology for the integral gamification of classesMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-024-19846-wOnline publication date: 18-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-024-19846-w
Drissi SChefrour ABoussaha KZarzour H(2024)Exploring the effects of personalized recommendations on student’s motivation and learning achievement in gamified mobile learning frameworkEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-024-12477-6Online publication date: 29-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12477-6
Karnalim OSimon Chivers W(2023)Gamification to Help Inform Students About Programming Plagiarism and CollusionIEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies10.1109/TLT.2023.324389316:5(708-721)Online publication date: Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2023.3243893
Tolegen LAlseitova A(2023)What Forces Us To Gamify The Programming In Higher Education: A Literature Review2023 17th International Conference on Electronics Computer and Computation (ICECCO)10.1109/ICECCO58239.2023.10146601(1-4)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICECCO58239.2023.10146601
Khademi Kde Vin MRicca CAdiraju ALin LAdeyemi OHui B(2023)An Open CS1 Learning Platform to Promote and Incentivize Deliberate Practice2023 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT)10.1109/ICALT58122.2023.00009(9-13)Online publication date: Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT58122.2023.00009
Huerta Vélez AToapanta T SGómez Díaz ESuarez CHuerta Suarez CVizuete MSalazar A(2023)Gamification Analysis with Collaborative Methodology for Higher Education2023 Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, & Applied Computing (CSCE)10.1109/CSCE60160.2023.00115(675-679)Online publication date: 24-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/CSCE60160.2023.00115
Costa J(2023)Using game concepts to improve programming learning: A multi‐level meta‐analysisComputer Applications in Engineering Education10.1002/cae.2263031:4(1098-1110)Online publication date: 20-Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22630
Barlow MCazalas IRobinson CCazalas J(2022)MOCSIDEJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3512733.351273437:5(11-20)Online publication date: 19-Jan-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3512733.3512734
Maryono DBudiyono Sajidan Akhyar M(2022)Implementation of Gamification in Programming Learning: Literature ReviewInternational Journal of Information and Education Technology10.18178/ijiet.2022.12.12.177112:12(1448-1457)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.18178/ijiet.2022.12.12.1771
Tuson EHickey TBecker BQuille KLaakso MBarendsen ESimon (2022)Mastery Learning and Specs Grading in Discrete MathProceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 110.1145/3502718.3524766(19-25)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2022
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