FGPE++ Gamified Programming Learning at Scale

The FGPE++ project aimed at increasing the educational potential of the FGPE framework by enhancing its usability for both students and teachers. This aim has been attained by achieving three obje...

The FGPE++ project aimed at increasing the educational potential of the FGPE framework by enhancing its usability for both students and teachers. This aim has been attained by achieving three objectives: (1) enabling the automatic generation of gamified programming exercises so that any teacher could create them with no prior knowledge of gamification and even using the tool for the first time; (2) enabling the effective use of the FGPE programming learning environment on mobile devices which are, for some period, disconnected from the Internet (by providing an in-browser automatic evaluation of students' submissions without verifying them on the server); (3) developing a full open online course for Data Analysis in Python that could be used as is by the project partners and other institutions reaping the benefits of the LTI support introduced in the FGPE Plus project. All three objectives contribute to better usability of the FGPE platform and make it address a wider gamut of user needs, both teachers' and students'.

The activities implemented in the project were exactly those defined in the application form. The four work packages: WP1 (Project Management), WP2 (development of the Programming Exercise Gamifizer and its promotion), WP3 (development of the Client-side Evaluation Engine and its promotion), and WP4 (development of the FGPE-supported LMS-compliant gamified programming course and its promotion) were successfully completed. All quantitative and qualitative indicators of objectives' achievement have been achieved. The work schedule originally proposed in the application form has been modified in several instances for practical reasons (to be described in detail in further sections of this report) without affecting the scope, costs, or quality of the project results.

All project results defined in the application form have been achieved: (1) Programming Exercise Gamifizer allowing the automatic generation of gamified programming exercises has been developed as an extension of FGPE AuthorKit, the software tool for editing gamified exercises, with its code published online as open source. (2) Client-side Evaluation Engine allowing in-browser evaluation of students' submission and processing of gamification rules has been implemented as an update of the FGPE platform software and published online as open source. (3) A full-fledged FGPE-supported and LMS-compliant open gamified course on the fundamentals of programming and data analysis in Python has been developed as an open educational material compatible with Moodle LMS. All results were experimentally verified and described in research reports presented at international conferences on computer-supported education and published in their proceedings and/or as journal papers. The demonstrational videos presenting all results have been recorded and published at the project website and at the Erasmus+ project results platform. Due to the space limit, the links are provided in the report sections devoted to the respective Work Packages.