Studying the Effectiveness of Games as an Extracurricular Activity in a Higher Education Programming Course

Higher Education programming courses usually present high levels of student failure and drop-out rates. Given this context, the use of educational video games is proposed as a strategy to increase the students' motivation and engagement, thus helping diminish such rates. However, there is a lack of empirical studies examining such effects, especially when they are proposed outside the formal curriculum (i.e., extracurricular) and when the students are enrolled in different Higher Education bachelors. This paper presents a cross-sectional study following a between-subjects design with 315 students (168 assigned to the experimental condition, 147 to the control condition) enrolled in one of the following bachelors: B.S. in Computer Science (where programming is a core subject), and B.S. in Statistics (where it is not). The study spanned two consecutive academic years. The outcomes were evaluated through a pre-/post-test schema and comparison of final course results to measure the effect on learning (objective assessment) and a survey to get the students' perceptions (subjective assessment). In addition, the level of participation was analyzed and compared between bachelors, considering the optional nature of the activity. Results show statistically significant differences in learning outcomes between the students in the experimental condition and those in the control group, without clear differences between Bachelors (the results are positive for both). In the subjective assessment and participation, the results are also positive, but, in this case, statistically significant differences between bachelors have been observed. These positive outcomes suggest its potential applicability to other Higher Education and Engineering courses.