A game-based approach for learning a programming language

Abstract

Many of the students in our classrooms belong to the gamer generation. Because of the success of digital games as entertainment products as well as formidable motivators, the possibility of using them in educational settings is being contemplated from a while. In this research we try to identify a set of digital games with the potential to be used to design learning activities, specifically to learn computer programming concepts like: algorithms, variables, and control structures. Based on the contents and sequencing of learning, two games were chosen and incorporated into the activities of a workshop on introduction to programming in order to analyze their usefulness. The workshop was designed on the Moodle platform using a gamification approach. Here, we present a selection of serious games focused on computer language programming, the selection criteria of two of them and their use in a workshop for incoming students, as well as some of the results obtained from this experience.