Attracting students' engagement in programming courses with gamification

Gamification has the ability to stimulate creativity and active minds. In the process of learning programming, a passive learning style often leads to some level of student disengagement during class time. Retaining the engagement of motivated students does not present much of a problem. However, in the case of problematic students, sometimes an unpleasant experience they encountered during a previous programming class will lead to an unmotivated attitude in the next programming class. Thus, this paper aims to provide a way for institutions to help problematic students who may have difficulty in engaging with the programming subject. This paper presents an example of how the gamification elements with COI framework can help to reach out to timid students who have difficulties engaging with the programming subject. Mapping of top gamification elements will create interdependence among inquiries for better educational experience.