Experimenting with Model Solutions as a Support Mechanism

We describe an experiment from an introductory programming course where we provided students an opportunity to access model solutions of programming assignments they have not yet completed. Access to model solutions was controlled with coins, which students collected by completing programming assignments. The quantity of coins was limited so that students could buy solutions to at most one tenth of the course assignments. When compared to the traditional approach where access to model solutions is limited to only after the assignment is completed or the assignment deadline has passed, students seemed to enjoy the opportunity more and collecting coins motivated some students to complete more assignments. Collected coins were mostly used close to deadlines and on more difficult assignments. Overall, the use of coins and model solutions may be a viable option to providing students additional support. Data from the use of coins and model solutions could also be used to identify students who could benefit from additional guidance.Peer reviewe

Personalization, Cognition, and Gamification-based Programming Language Learning: A State-of-the-Art Systematic Literature Review

Programming courses in computing science are important because they are often the first introduction to computer programming for many students. Many university students are overwhelmed with the information they must learn for an introductory course. The current teacher-lecturer model of learning commonly employed in university lecture halls often results in a lack of motivation and participation in learning. Personalized gamification is a pedagogical approach that combines gamification and personalized learning to motivate and engage students while addressing individual differences in learning. This approach integrates gamification and personalized learning strategies to inspire and involve students while addressing their unique learning needs and differences. A comprehensive literature search was conducted by including 81 studies that were analyzed based on their research design, intervention, outcome measures, and quality assessment. The findings suggest that personalized gamification can enhance student cognition in programming courses by improving motivation, engagement, and learning outcomes. However, the effectiveness of personalized gamification varies depending on various factors, such as the type of gamification elements used, the degree of personalization, and the characteristics of the learners. This paper provides insights into designing and implementing effective personalized gamification interventions in programming courses. The findings could inform educational practitioners and researchers in programming education about the potential benefits of personalized gamification and its implications for educational practice

Apply Small Teaching Tactics in an Introductory Programming Course: Impact on Learning Performance

Small teaching approaches are well-structured, incremental teaching improvement techniques supported by research in cognitive science, memory, and learning. I systematically implement a series of small teaching activities in an introductory programming course to tackle the teaching and learning challenges faced by instructors and students. The small teaching activities are designed to promote effective learning strategies such as knowledge retrieval, spacing-out practice, and interleaving learning. I examine the impact of such approaches on students’ performance through comparative analyses. The test results indicate that small teaching approaches are effective in improving students’ lower- and higher-level thinking skills and help boost students’ long-term knowledge retention. Because the small teaching approaches are flexible and easy to implement, instructors teaching technical information systems topics can quickly integrate at least some small teaching activities into their classes

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

Gamification’s efficacy in enhancing students' HTML programming skills and academic achievement motivation

This study aims to demonstrate the efficacy of gamification in developing HTML programming skills and academic achievement motivation for 10th-grade students. Despite the significance of computer programming in developing students' thinking, many students still need more motivation to learn it. One of the entertaining strategies of computer programming is gamification. The study used a quasi-experimental design for two groups. The experimental group (N=18) was taught by gamification and the control group (N=17) was taught by the traditional teaching method. The researcher conducted a pre-test to determine the equivalence between groups using a valid and reliable practical test and scale.  After three-weeks of teaching, the same test and scale were applied to compare the groups. The result showed statistical differences between the two groups in favor of the experimental group in programming skills and all academic achievement motivation dimensions. This study recommended that using gamification in teaching programming languages to students at different stages would help computer teachers.  More research should be conducted to investigate the impact of gamification on teaching different programming languages

PLMan: A Game-Based Learning Activity for Teaching Logic Thinking and Programming

This paper presents PLMan, a game-based learning activity designed to face problems observed in practical lessons about Computational Logics. The main of these problems was unmotivated students, who were showing lack of interest in learning activities. Other problems were a high percentage of students abandoning or committing plagiarism, and teachers' overload, that was leaving no time for re-designing lessons, activities and workflow. This paper describes analyses and design steps undertaken from the problematic situation to the implementation of PLMan. Experimental data confirms that this intervention reverted the problematic situation, improved learning results, raised student motivation and involvement, and left time for teachers to maintain and improve the system. Results clearly show that students have moved from literally hating activities to enjoying them and being enthusiast on participating beyond lessons

Effect of Self-efficacy and Emotional Engagement on Introductory Programming Students

Today organisations both in the private and public sectors rely on Information Technology (IT) solutions and continue to make significant investments enabling business via IT. The increase in investment in IT is due to the demand for more efficient and cost-effective delivery of products and services. The dependency on IT and the increased level of investment in IT have both motivated a wider accountability focus on strategic technology initiatives, and a complex mix of political, organisational, technical and cultural shifts requiring far-sighted management and governance of IT. Throughout the last decade, systems, processes, standards and best practice frameworks have been developed to facilitate effective IT governance. However, a large number of IT initiatives fail to deliver. Getting value from technology deployment via effective IT governance remains a key concern of management. This paper presents the outcome of the analysis of four IT deployment cases studies. The analysis of the four case studies demonstrated a strong connection between project failures and inadequate governance practices

The Effects of Gamification Rewards in E-Learning: A Longitudinal Field Study on Motivation and Mental Fatigue

E-Learning, as a prevalent instructional approach in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, is often criticized for reducing motivation and increasing mental fatigue among learners. Despite the attractiveness of various gamification designs to resolve these issues, there still exists a lack of comprehensive and integrated understanding of the pedagogic effectiveness of gamification rewards. Motivated thus, this study assesses and compares four different types of gamification rewards: unexpected-hedonic rewards, expected-hedonic rewards, unexpected-utilitarian rewards, and expected-utilitarian rewards. Drawing from self-determination theory and opportunity cost model of subjective effort and task performance, this study evaluates the effect of gamification reward type on learning motivation and mental fatigue. The effect of gamification reward type will be examined in a longitudinal field experiment in an introductory undergraduate computer science course

Architecture of Engagement: Autonomy-Supportive Leadership for Instructional Improvement

This multiple paper dissertation addresses the importance of improving student success in online higher education programs by providing support for instructors. The autonomy-supportive structures to improve instructional practice are explained through three main domains, including instructional development, instructional design, and instructional practice. The first paper addresses instructional leadership with the theoretical foundations and practical considerations necessary for instructional leaders. Recommendations are made to use microcredentials or digital badges to scaffold programming using self-determination theory. The second paper addresses the importance of instructional design in improving instructional practice including the intentionality involved in implementing a gamification strategy to improve online student motivation. The third paper addresses instructional practice with a mixed-method sequential explanatory case study. Using the community of inquiry framework, this paper explains intentional course design, course facilitation, and student perceptions of the digital powerups strategy. The conclusion considers implications for practice and the need for instructional leaders to scaffold an architecture of engagement to support instructors and improve student success

The Gamification Inventory : an Instrument for the Qualitative Evaluation of Gamification and its Application to Learning Management Systems

Gamification has risen meteorically in popularity since the beginning of the decade, both in practitioner circles and among researchers. We show that empirical results of gamificationa s effects do not match the hype around it as studies have largely failed to prove any effects. We posit that a proper evaluation of gamification requires an understanding of how gamification can be expressed in real-world applications and employ Wittgensteinian family resemblances as a basis for such a definition. We have collected a set of properties that gamified applications can have through the analysis of goals and means of gamification mentioned in the literature and through an expert survey. We then used those results to create the Gamification Inventory, an instrument for the qualitative assessment of gamification in a given system. We have tested the instrument with a set of evaluators in the field of learning management systems (LMSs), informing both a refinement of the instrument and the preparation of an experiment with the intent of testing the effectiveness of common forms of gamification. The analysis of these LMSs led to results very similar to what our analysis of previous empirical studies in gamification, and especially gamification in education, have shown: most gamification is concentrated on using points, badges, levels and leaderboards as game design elements. We argue that a large-scale, long-term experiment with a proper factorial design is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of gamification and have prepared such a study. Having identified points and badges as two major elements to be tested, we developed an extension to a competency grid add-on for the LMS Moodle that allows for a 2x2 factorial design of using points and badges. The system is designed for large-scale distribution among schools using the competency grid in Moodle, with minimal invasiveness in mind. We briefly discuss the challenges that come with such large-scale experiments, especially in German schools. As a result, we present a new, tested, and refined instrument for the qualitative assessment of gamification in a given system, an overview over gamification as it is being used in the most popular LMSs, and an experimental setup to test the effectiveness of points and badges in schools, using custom add-ons to the competency grid for Moodle and to the corresponding mobile application