Avaliação de um ambiente gamificado para o ensino de algoritmos

Abstract

Demotivation and lack of engagement have been one of the main factors for avoidance and dropout in higher education courses, especially among the exact sciences courses. In Computer Science courses the scenario does not differ from the others, placing it among the ones with the highest evasion rates. With the change in the teaching-learning process caused by the introduction of technologies, one of the alternatives to alleviate problems in the motivation and engagement of students is the use of game elements, a technique known as gamification. This work aims to present an evaluation of the employment and implementation of gamification, elaborated considering Bartle’s player profiles and aiming to promote the students’ engagement and motivation, in a virtual learning environment, the Cosmo, focused on the teaching of algorithms. Through a controlled experiment of use of the environment and a motivation assessment questionnaire, it is observed that the selected and applied gamification elements show promising results in the comprehensiveness of the profiles and in the promotion of the participants’ engagement and motivation. In addition, the questionnaire results show good acceptance of the use of gamification in the teaching of the algoorithm discipline, with over 90% of participating students agreeing that the subject with gamification is more motivating, fun and interesting.