Motivation and Virtual Education in Computer Science: Case Universidad de Medellín-Colombia

Virtual education raises to students and teachers important challenges, normally different to those faced in conventional education. In the context of virtual education, a question that remains to be solved is associated with the level of motivation possessed by the students during the course. Usually, at the School of Engineering in the University of Medellín, this issue is tackled through activities such as chats and forums. Mostly, these activities are not enough to motivate the student in the activities related with the learning process. This work proposes two motivation strategies based on gamification and constructivism. These strategies are validated in a course called programming fundamentals, taught to all bachelor degrees given in the School of Engineering. Results obtained through the experiments suggest that proposed strategies improve the student's performance and satisfaction in the course. Therefore, when teaching at the virtual scenario, using Information and Communication Technologies in the educational environment is not only the way to contact the student, it is the mean to develop pedagogical-didactic approaches that finally enrich the educational process and consequently motivate the student to perform well.