THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A FULLY GAMIFIED PROGRAMMING COURSE AFTER COMBINING WITH SERIOUS GAMES - Key findings

Oct 15, 2026

Online programming courses for youngsters use gamification and serious-game educational activities to strengthen motivation and comprehension. A gamified LMS delivers points, badges, incentives, immediate feedback and a leaderboard while allowing monitoring of user activity across courses covering C+, C# and Java. Effectiveness is assessed by comparing learning outcomes of two cohorts of 200 students each: after adding game programs to Java tasks, learners solve coding tasks more effectively and demonstrate faster understanding.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Gamification in programming education

Serious games and definitions

Digital vs. serious games

Using serious games to improve curriculum effectiveness

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A FULLY GAMIFIED PROGRAMMING COURSE AFTER COMBINING WITH SERIOUS GAMES Sándor KIRÁLY and Tamás BALLA Abstract: Our online programming language courses have been developed for youngsters who are interested in computer programming. The courses were gamified with some common gamification elements: points, badges, incentives, immediate feedback and leaderboard. The developed Learning Management System (LMS) for our learning portal provides the chance to monitor all users’ activities. After examining our registered users’ progress in the courses, we tried to increase the effectiveness of the courses (C+, C\# and Java) with developing educational game programs that cannot only foster motivation during the playing process but provide faster understanding, since students play with what they need to learn and understand. We compared the performance of the last 200 students who registered and completed the last chapter in the curriculum before the game programs had been added into the Java course, and the first 200 students, who registered and completed the last chapter in the curriculum, after the addition of the games in the supported coding tasks. The results were impressive and proved that with our thematic didactic game programs, users were able to solve coding tasks more effectively. Key words: gamification, educational games, computer programming, serious games 1. Introduction One of the most difficult challenges faced by most students is the understanding of programming fundamentals, particularly for novices (Zapušek and Rugelj, 2013; Coelho et al., 2011; López et al., 2018) . They find it hard to learn programming languages since concepts are complex and cognitively demanding, and are totally different from what they are accustomed to. Therefore, introductory courses are usually considered difficult and often have high dropout rates. Learning computer programming requires algorithmic thinking, problem-solving skills, and it is a long-term process (Muratet et al., 2011). There is a distinction between programming knowledge (for example being able to state how a “while” loop works) and programming strategies (for example using a “while” loop in a program) . Students may have difficulties with combining the programming constructs (conditionals, loops, etc.) into viable solutions. Winslow (Winslow, 1996) observed that students who understand the syntax and semantics of individual programming statements sometimes cannot translate it into software code. In an online environment, students' achievement can be influenced by numerous factors that stem from their individual personality. These factors can be for example their ability to maintain their attention or their intrinsic motivation. One of the most important factors that should be considered is the students’engagement: this can be defined as the student's cognitive process, active participation and emotional involvement in the learning process (Pellas, 2011) . In an online environment, it is also important to increase the student's cognitive involvement (Wolf, 2011) that can be carried out, for example, by applying gamified elements. The popularity of a computer programming portal stems from its effectiveness that can be improved applying gamification according to researchers. The term gamification was coined by Nick Pelling in 2002 (Pelling, 2011) . Gamification refers to the use of game elements in a non-game context in order to increase engagement between human and computer (Deterding et al., 2011) and to motivate students in an educational setting (Tsai et al., 2016.) . Gamiﬁcation uses elements that support intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, for example, offering prizes (rewards) (Surendeleg et al., 2014) . It also offers an opportunity to experiment with rules, emotions and social roles (Lee et al., 2011) . To summarise the different definitions we can say that gamification is the use of elements of game design in non-game context which

FAQs

What gamification elements were included in the programming courses?

The courses were gamified using points, badges, incentives, immediate feedback, and a leaderboard, supported by an LMS that tracks learners’ activities.

How did the study evaluate the effectiveness of the approach?

It compared the progress and performance of two cohorts of 200 students each on the last curriculum chapter—before versus after adding game programs to Java coding tasks.

Why were serious games expected to improve programming learning?

Serious games can foster motivation and support faster understanding because students play with the skills they need to learn and practice.

Oct 15, 2026

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