Gamification is the usage of game mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics and game thinking in non-game systems. Its main objective is to increase user's motivation, experience and engagement. For the same reason, it has started to penetrate in e-learning systems. However, when using gamified design elements in e-learning, we must consider various types of learners. In the phases of analysis and design of such elements, the cooperation of education, technology, pedagogy, design and finance experts is required. This paper discusses the development phases of introducing gamification into e-learning systems, various gamification design elements and their suitability for usage in e-learning systems. Several gamified design elements are found suited for e-learning (including points, badges, trophies, customization, leader boards, levels, progress tracking, challenges, feedback, social engagement loops and the freedom to fail). Advices for the usage of each of those elements in e-learning systems are also provided in this study. Based on those advises and the identified phases of introducing gamification info e-learning systems, we conducted an experimental study to investigate the effectiveness of gamification of an informatics online course. Results showed that students enrolled in the gamified version of the online module achieved greater learning success. Positive results encourage us to investigate the gamification of online learning content for other topics and courses. We also encourage more research on the influence of specific gamified design elements on learner's motivation and engagement.

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One of the main goals of the Software Engineering discipline is to find higher abstraction levels and ways to reuse software in order to increase its productivity and quality. Ontologies, which are typically considered as a technique or an artifact used in one or more software lifecycle phases, may be used to help achieve that goal. This paper provides a systematic literature review of the proposed solutions for applying ontologies in automatic and generative programming. The paper aims to identify ontologies and software development tools, frameworks, prototypes, design patterns and methodologies that use them as development artifacts for source code generation or product derivation. The review provides researchers with the state of the art, while also identifying challenges and gaps that require further exploration and development.

Research presented in this paper represents a further step towards proving the efficiency of gamification in higher education. Our research was conducted within two higher education institutions and includes full-time and part-time students who enrolled in the courses 3D modeling and Programming. Based on the research results, three hypotheses were tested. These hypotheses give a better insight into some psychological phenomes. The first hypotheses tested the level of knowledge in experimental and control groups for all students who achieved a minimum of 50% score in the pre-test. Our results confirmed the existence of statistically significant difference in the benefit of the experimental group. The other two hypotheses are spreading results even more. We analyzed 50% of the highest ranked and also 50% of the lowest ranked students' score with the use of t-test. Based on our analysis of the average number of points on the post-test for participants with the lowest ranking we found no statistically significant difference. On the other hand, the same analysis for participants with the highest ranking shows, with statistically significant difference, that the experimental group achieved notably better score.

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This paper presents an ontological model for specifying and automatically generating complete business Web applications. First, a modular and expandable ontological model for specifying form-based, business Web applications is developed and presented. Next, the technology used for transforming the ontological specification to Java executable code is explained. Finally, the results of applying the proposed model for specifying and generating an order management application are presented. Results showed that the application of an ontological model in a generative programming approach increases the level of abstraction. This approach is especially suitable for development of software families, where similar features are reused in multiple products/applications.