Video Games Platforms: A Gateway to New Trends for Initial Programming Education

Abstract

The teaching of programming is a critical topic in our society. Given the Science and Technology initiatives, these topics are considered in different training cycles: primary, secondary and higher education. In the case of higher education, students must cultivate fundamental concepts for developing computer applications, which contribute to not only the knowledge of programming languages but also open guidelines for computational thinking. In previous research, we evaluated a set of platforms under a usability lens; on this occasion, we compare these results and their impact on the learning outcomes. We evaluated three experimental groups that used video game platforms to achieve their learning outcomes. Additionally, we will synthesize the literature regarding new paradigms of programming education under immersive environments. © 2022 IEEE.