E-learning y gamificación como apoyo al aprendizaje de programación

Résumé

Applying gamification strategies in university education, combining classroom classes with an e-learning platform, is one of the educational proposals that increases motivation and commitment in performing autonomous tasks. The present research shows the results of the application experience in the subject Programming I of the Faculty of Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics of the Central University of Ecuador. For this, an explanatory study, with a quasi-experimental design with groups: experimental (gamified methodology) and control (traditional methodology), is carried out. The results are analyzed in three semesters, April-September 2015 in Computer Graphics Engineering, where the gamified methodology was applied; in the period October 2015-March 2016 in Mathematical Engineering in which two groups were created randomly (experimental and control); and in the semester April-September 2016, where the traditional methodology in Engineering in Industrial Design was used, and in Mathematical Engineering the gamified methodology. In addition, surveys are applied to students who completed the gamification course to evaluate the gamification strategies applied. To determine if the proposal allows improving the academic performance of these students, differences between groups were evaluated starting from the t-Student test in the case of normality and the nonparametric U-Mann-Whitney test in the case of non-normality. Finally, the three groups with gamification were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the medians for k samples.