Impact of a gamified educational video game on academic performance in Object-Oriented Programming
Keywords:
academic performance, educational video game, gamification, higher education, object-oriented programming.Abstract
Video games are rarely used in academic contexts and are commonly associated with leisure. This study analyzes the impact of a video game as a gamification tool on the academic performance of second-semester students enrolled in the Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) course at the Tecnológico Nacional de México, Campeche campus. A quantitative methodology with a quasi-experimental design was applied, comprising a control group (n=22) and an experimental group (n=31), totaling 53 students—20 women and 33 men, aged 18 to 23. The educational video game Tales from the South II, developed in RPG Maker MV, served as the gamification tool. Pre- and post-tests with dichotomous items were administered to both groups; instrument reliability was validated using the Kuder-Richardson coefficient (KR-20 = 0.799). Due to heterogeneous variances confirmed by Levene's test (F=7.719, p=0.008), Welch's t-test was applied (α=0.05). Results showed a statistically significant difference favoring the experimental group (t=3.535, df=43.92, p=0.001), with a large effect size (Cohen's d=0.99). These results suggest favorable evidence that the use of a video game as a gamification strategy positively impacts OOP academic performance and contributes to the design of innovative pedagogical strategies for engineering programs in higher education.
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