Abstract
Coding platforms provide challenges for users to solve in order to improve their programming skills, utilizing elements of both Technology Enhanced Learning and gamification. Inspired by previous approaches, this article presents a coding platform focused on competition, and its evaluation in the context of tertiary programming education. The system provides programming challenges for two users to compete against each other in real time. We seek to answer the question whether this notion of one-on-one competition can increase motivation to solve programming tasks. Two user studies were conducted in order to evaluate the effects of the system’s competitive component on users’ self-assessment, enjoyment, and motivation.
The results of these studies suggest that this kind of competitive environment in programming leads to learners assessing themselves more distinctively, while their enjoyment decreases. Furthermore, learners’ motivation drops in competition with others, although it remains on a high level. Learners who already achieved a relatively high level of programming knowledge are generally more inclined to enjoy competitive game components in programming.
We conclude that competition in programming education does not necessarily have solely positive effects on learners’ experiences. The inclusion of competition in tertiary computer science education might prove to be useful, but further research needs to be conducted to identify the best way of integrating it into educational concepts.
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Fischer, K., Vaupel, S., Heller, N., Mader, S., Bry, F. (2021). Effects of Competitive Coding Games on Novice Programmers. In: Auer, M.E., Rüütmann, T. (eds) Educating Engineers for Future Industrial Revolutions. ICL 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1328. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68198-2_43
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68198-2_43
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