Gamified Strategies to Increase Motivation in Middle School Programming Learning: A Systematic Mapping

Abstract

Digital transformation is one of the main problems facing Colombia, the lack of students interested in starting studies in university programs associated with Computer Science is one of the leading causes of this problem. Currently, worldwide and in Colombia, there is a deficit of professionals associated with these areas of science. Therefore, identifying the reasons for the low demand of students in these programs is important when the labor demand is so high. Based on this, a systematic mapping was carried out to identify the gamification strategies used to increase the levels of interest and motivation in programming in middle school students who are about to start their university program. The mapping was based on 652 initial papers, of which 19 were accepted as they met all the inclusion and quality criteria and had sufficient in-formation to answer the research questions. It was found that the most used technological strategies are associated with video games, robotics, and the practice-based learning technique. Most of the methodologies are complemented with gamification elements, demonstrating their usefulness in increasing student interest. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.