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Chapter 13
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1034-5.ch013
ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to the scripting environments that are pivotal for the development and usage of
gamifed Learning Management Systems in programming education. They are classifed into four types,
which include: the student’s code execution environment, the scripting wrapper for processing input and
output of the code execution environment, the game-based rule processing environment, and the envi-
ronment for processing scripts embedded in the course content. The chapter describes the functionality
of each of these environments, with exemplary usage scenarios provided. Also, the key requirements for
each environment are specifed, and adequate design and technological solutions suggested. For open
design decisions, consequences of choosing particular options are investigated.
INTRODUCTION
The terms ‘script’ and ‘scripting’ in educational contexts, and especially computer-supported educational
contexts, are most often used referring to computer-supported collaboration scripts (see e.g. Fischer et
al., 2007). The focus of this chapter, however, is on the computer programming scripts that facilitate
various functions of gamified Learning Management Systems used for computer programming education.
A ‘script’ is therefore understood here as a program, written for and run in an environment of a specific
software system (e.g. a Learning Management System), whose role is to automate the execution of tasks
within that system, which would otherwise have to be executed by a human (e.g. a course administrator
or an instructor). Although scripts have access to (usually selected) functions of the software system they
are written for and data stored therein, they are not an integral part of the system: they should rather be
Scripting Environments
of Gamifed Learning
Management Systems for
Programming Education
Jakub Swacha
University of Szczecin, Poland