Applying the Block-Based Programming Language ALICE for Developing Programming Competencies in University Students

The information society is part of modern life, and algorithmic thinking and programming are relevant to everybody, regardless of educational background. Today’s world needs professionals with computing competencies. Higher education programming classes usually use text-based programming languages to develop programming competencies, usually without success for all students. Traditional programming languages consider syntax barriers that complicate their adoption and usefulness for students. Block-based programming languages such as SCRATCH and ALICE permit the development of programming competencies without text coding and syntax restrictions to solve that issue. There are different research works on SCRATCH experiences, but not many experiences on how to use ALICE overall in higher education. This article aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the ALICE programming language in enhancing programming learning outcomes for university students and addressing the limited number of empirical studies of ALICE in higher education contexts. The research involved a literature review to provide a theoretical foundation, followed by an experimental phase that involved two groups: the control group, which followed the traditional programming instruction method with a text-based programming language, and the experimental group, which used the block-based ALICE environment. The experimental group achieved better results with an average score of 80, while the control group scored 65 points on a 100-point scale. The results obtained highlight the effectiveness of the ALICE environment in supporting the programming learning process for first-level Software Engineering university students.