Gamification as a tool for teaching and learning programming

Igre su oduvijek bile dio čovjekova života i predstavljaju aktivnost u kojoj osoba uživa i zabavlja se. Razvojem tehnologije, ljudi su se upoznali s video igrama koje su počele biti dio svakodnevice. Primijećeno je da koncentracija tokom igranja video igara ne opada ni nakon nekoliko sati te da elementi video igara imaju utjecaj na unutarnju i vanjsku motivaciju. Stoga, elementi igara počeli su se primjenjivati u raznim okolinama koje nisu igre pa tako i u edukaciji. Taj proces naziva se igrifikacija i poseban naglasak u ovome radu je primjena iste u učenju programiranja. Praktični dio ovog rada obuhvaća izradu takve aplikacije. Implementirani su elementi igara poput ljestvice s vodećim rezultatima, trake napretka, izazova, bodovnog sustava i znački. Uz to, provedeno je istraživanje koje je uključivalo ispitanike koji su se susreli sa takvim sustavima. Cilj istraživanja bilo je saznati utjecaj pojedinog elementa igre na motivaciju i mišljenje o primjeni takvih sustava u obrazovanje i ishodu primjene.Games were always a part of human life and they represent an activity in which a person enjoys and has fun. With the development of technology, people were introduced to video games that have became part of everyday life. It's been noticed that while playing video games, concentration does not decrease even after a couple of hours and that game elements have an impact on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Therefore, game elements have begun to be applied in various contexts that are not games and one of them being education. That process is called gamification and special emphasis in this thesis is on applying this process in learning programming. As a practical part of this thesis such an application was developed. It implements game elements such as a leaderboard, progress bar, challenge, point system and badge. In addition to that, a survey was conducted that included respondents who have met with that kind of applications. The aim of the survey was to determine the influence of a single game element on motivation and opinion on applying that kind of systems in education and on the outcome of the application