RoboTIC: A serious game based on augmented reality for learning programming

Coding skills are becoming more and more important in today's world, especially within the context of the fourth industrial revolution. They also help practice other 21 century skills such as computational thinking, problem solving and teamwork. Unfortunately, learning how to program is tough and can be also frustrating for beginner students. In this work we introduce RoboTIC, a serious game based on gamification and Augmented Reality that facilitates the learning of programming to students in lower levels of the education system by using a novel set of visual metaphors derived from a notation of roads and traffic signs. The architecture that supports RoboTIC has been designed to allow the integration of multimedia components when new programming concepts and techniques must be addressed and to add game levels that enable students to learn incrementally. Experiments have been conducted in a youth center with children who do not have coding skills at all to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposal. The results show promising conclusions in terms of children's motivation and interest in programming.