LEARNING COMPUTER PROGRAMMING: THE ROLE OF GAMIFICATION

Learning computer programming is a difficult task for most students who start learning in this field. In fact, many students refer that learning computer programming is an arduous and difficult task, presenting some fear in addressing these issues. This paper describes the introduction of gamification mechanisms to respond to the difficulties felt by students of higher education in starting to learn computer programming. The objective is to promote new learning strategies and new pedagogical approaches based on the paradigm of gamification learning, as well as strategies such as problem-based learning, seeking to make teaching programming more attractive and appealing to students. This paper describes a case study carried out in the course algorithms and data structures.