Educators have long been trying to motivate students in their introductory programming courses. There are key concepts that are not easy to teach like abstraction, function and reuse. We believe that the visual nature of game-oriented approach to teaching anything is more effective for students. This work describes our experience in the use of Lightbot to introduce students to these concepts. This approach has been implemented in two Universities in CS1: Universidad Nacional de San Agustín and Universidad La Salle, from Arequipa -- Perú. One of them uses Java and the other one uses Python as first programming languages. Lightbot has been used in both of them since 2015 in the first laboratory session

In many countries serious effort has been put into developing and running programs that encourage girls to enjoy learning programming. At school level, many girls have done very well in these experiences, but despite their confidence and enthusiasm for programming at the time of the intervention, few have continued on to enroll in tertiary computing programs. In higher education institutions, numerous equity initiatives have attempted to improve both recruitment and retention, yet the pipeline continues to shrink. The running of interventions takes effort on the part of the academics to develop and much time, often in vacation periods, to deliver. As the success of these programs frequently relies on the goodwill of faculty, the authors formed an international multi-disciplinary working group to explore faculty attitudes and perceptions of these gender equity programs, and identify key features of enduring programs. In this paper, we gather and critically review existing literature resources with the aim of developing evaluation guidelines for the running of intervention programs from primary school to university education in order to encourage girls of all ages to seriously consider the prospect of undertaking a computing degree and to better support them during this time. Additionally, we explore the perceptions of faculty towards gender equity and gender equity programs, and discuss how faculty perceptions align with research findings. Our findings identify a clear need for gender equity programs, more consistent evaluation of the effectiveness of such programs including gathering, analysing and storing longitudinal data and more widespread dissemination of gender equity information to faculty.

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced profound changes in higher education, with the replacement of face-to-face instruction with distance or remote education, which involves the management of digital skills by teachers and students. The purpose of this research is to analyze the perception of professors with regard to digital skills and the use of gamified strategies in the teaching-learning process in a virtual context. A questionnaire was sent to 81 professors in different areas of knowledge at a Peruvian public university during the first academic semester of 2020. A strong correlation (r≥.700, p=.01) was found between the use of ICT and gamification as a resource for teaching-learning, and a moderate correlation between the knowledge of digital competences and the possibilities of application as part of the instructional strategies. From the results obtained, it is clear that the participants have a positive perception of digital skills and gamified strategies, regardless of academic degree or area of knowledge. This could provide support for the update of those proposals targeting professors in order to improve their digital skills.

The general purpose of this study was to determine the potential of using a gamified platform in the development of scientific writing skills among engineering students at a Peruvian university. To this end, a gamified web platform named Call for Papers for Engineers was designed. This platform contains mini-games focused on developing reading and writing skills for articles related to the engineering area. A quantitative methodological approach was employed, with a quasi-experimental design involving two groups: an experimental group and a control group, with pre-and post-test measurements. Additionally, the gamified platform was validated through expert judgment, and user satisfaction levels were assessed. The main results indicate that the content developed in the course and the use of the gamified web platform were effective teaching methods, as the students in the experimental group demonstrated higher performance after using the gamified platform compared to the control group. Furthermore, participants in the study expressed satisfaction with the use of this technological resource, finding it motivating and user-friendly.

Background: Epileptic encephalopathy (EE) is defined as the presence of frequent epileptiform activity that adversely impacts development, typically causing the slowing or regression of developmental skills, and is usually associated with frequent seizures. One of the main disturbances in EE is in the coordination of the upper extremities and hands. Traditional rehabilitation for this type of pathology focuses on the alleviation of gross or fine motor disability. In the last few years, the use of low-cost devices together with customized serious games has shown improvements in motor disorders and enrichments in activities of daily living. Objective: This study aims to explore the feasibility of a new serious game for improving fine motor control in children with EE. Methods: The participants were 4 children with EE (male: n=2, 50%; female: n=2, 50%) who were classified as belonging to level 1 in the Gross Motor Classification System. The children were tested over 10 sessions during the intervention period (before and after treatment). The clinical tests performed were the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, 2nd edition and Pittsburgh Rehabilitation Participation Scale. The subscales of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, 2nd edition were fine motor precision, fine motor integration, manual dexterity, and upper-limb coordination. At the end of the first session, we used the User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire to analyze user satisfaction. Results: The significance outcomes for a Student t test (1-tailed) were as follows: P=.009 for fine motor precision, P=.002 for fine motor integration, P=.56 for manual dexterity, and P=.99 for upper-limb coordination. The participation rate as measured using the Pittsburgh Rehabilitation Participation Scale was between good and very good, which means that, based on the therapist’s evaluation, interest, independence, and motivation were achieved by each participant. The mean User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire score was close to 30, which is the maximum value. Conclusions: The results support the use of the proposed serious game as a complement in therapeutic sessions during the rehabilitation processes for children with EE. Significant improvements in fine motor control and activities of daily living revealed that the proposed serious game is beneficial for fine motor disorders of this pathology.