A Study of Online Courses Outcomes and Gamification Approach Application among Engineering Students during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic

Online and hybrid courses on IT-related topics have been increasing in demand and interest for decades, but the recent pandemic situation has made them critical. This article presents the results of a survey related to online/hybrid learning among engineering students in Bulgarian universities. The results reveal some of the problems and attitudes towards programming education, as well as some challenges and expectations of students regarding online programming courses according to recent educational requirements. Some popular gamification, PBL and GBL strategies were used in the online learning process. Some elements of gamification were introduced into the learning process. At the end of the training, a survey was conducted to assess the opinions of the students regarding the introduction of these elements and their impact on increasing the quality of training. Some of the results are shown in the article.