Computer programming courses are an essential facet of STEM education, confronted by many pressing challenges. Higher education (HE) students struggle to master programming principles resulting in unsatisfactory pass rates, student retention and low levels of student engagement. Gamification in programming courses has been recognized as a prospective technique that could improve student participation as well as impact learning in a positive way. There is currently a shortage of review studies published in the last two years (2018-2019) that focus specifically on the gamification of programming courses in HE. The aim of this paper is to bridge this gap and to provide a comprehensive review of literature concerning studies that focused on the usage of gamification systems in the teaching of programming courses in HE from 2014 until 2019. Results indicate that the most popular gamification elements that were used in the reviewed studies were leaderboards, followed by points, badges and levels. Additionally, in terms of the tools or instruments that were used to implement gamification solutions, it was discovered that the development of a new gamification platform and the usage of existing gamification tools were the most wide-spread method for gamification implementation. Lastly, from the studies that were reviewed, it was evident that gamification of HE programming courses had a very positive impact on student engagement, student programming knowledge and student motivation. This review paper fills a void in existing literature and could therefore serve as a valuable resource for academe that consider gamifying HE programming courses.
