Enhancing SQL programming assessments through educational games: a gamified approach

Educational games have gained widespread interest among teachers and researchers across various fields due to their capacity to engage students, foster active participation, and improve learning outcomes. In the context of computer programming, which demands significant cognitive effort, the use of educational games has grown substantially. While programming often emphasizes algorithmic thinking, Structured Query Language (SQL) requires a distinct, declarative approach. To address this, we developed an SQL learning portal featuring six educational games. Our portal offers comprehensive learning materials for students wishing to acquire proficiency in various SQL statements, including SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE and more. This study examines the impact of incorporating games into an online SQL learning environment on students’ performance in programming assessments. A total of 251 undergraduate students, aged 19 to 24, participated in the research. The students completed four assessments. They performed notably better in the game-based assessments (average score: 75.36%) than in the traditional assessment (55.25%), with the first two games yielding particularly strong results, while performance in the third game remained comparable to that of the traditional test. These findings suggest that games can be effectively utilized not only as preparation tools for SQL assessments but also as an alternative method for conducting them.