Gamified and Adaptive Learning System Codey for Learning Programming

The concept of gamification could be described as the use of game design elements in a non-game context, with the aim that users of a gamified application do not realize that they are doing hard or difficult work but have fun as if they were playing a game. Gamification is one of the most successful approaches in education today, as the use of gamification elements increases students' motivation, engagement and active participation in the learning process, leading to more successful achievement of learning outcomes. This paper presents ongoing research on the use of gamification in education aimed at motivating students and increasing their engagement to improve learning outcomes. The overall aim was to design and develop a gamified system for learning programming and to test its success. The paper describes the self-developed gamified system Codey for Python programming, which includes numerous gamification features to motivate students to master difficult topics related to programming. The most important gamification features implemented are XP (experience points), daily goals, leaderboard, number of days of use (streak), short lessons and code puzzles. Adaptivity was also implemented, i.e. feedback to students after exercises/lessons, repetition of incorrectly answered exercises, adjustment of students' scores, adjustment of the difficulty of tasks and adaptive lessons. The functionality of the system was tested in two phases: Alpha testing to align the intuitiveness of the application with User Experience (UX)/ User Interface (UI) principles, and beta testing with students to test the effectiveness of gamification for learning programming. The research questions were formulated to find out whether the developed gamified system is intuitive to use from a UX/UI perspective and whether the use of a gamified system contributes to greater student engagement in learning programming. The study was conducted in a primary school to test the effectiveness of gamification on student engagement. The results obtained show some evidence of the effectiveness of the use of gamification, but there is a need to continue systematic research on gamification in schools so that the prototype of the gamified system presented is further developed and tested.