Gamification of an Educational Environment in Software Engineering: Case Study for Digital Accessibility of People With Disabilities

Motivation is an essential aspect of performance and team productivity as key factors of success in software engineering. Hence, to achieve effective teaching of Software Engineering, it is required to structure an educational environment with new teaching and learning strategies. Classroom gamification has become an alternative strategy to improve the motivation and the commitment required by work teams. This paper presents a software tool to create gamified experiences in the classroom with a methodological structure designed to gamify a software engineering educational environment. The most relevant result of this work is the design of a gamified environment and an experience that, in accordance with the Educational Project of the Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN), is used in the Software Engineering Advanced Topics course where students develop software products for non-profit organizations made up of people with disabilities and their families.