Enhancing the CS1 student experience with gamification

Introductory courses offer several opportunities to inspire students to pursue a degree in STEM majors. Attracting and retaining students involves engagement and enjoyment at the individual, team, and class level. We explored the effects of these factors with a gamified approach to programming practice in an introductory computer science course. Gamification involves the use of game design elements in a non-game context to engage and motivate students. We present a novel learning game and the results of play-testing with 12 CS1 students. Students were surveyed prior to and after the gamified programming session. Positive feedback was obtained from the students and the educators observed high participation, interaction, and successful team programming efforts. We objectively report student satisfaction with the game, lessons learned by the educators, and suggest future work for stimulating students in introductory STEM courses.