Gamification in MOOCs: A review of the state of the art
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paper_title: Initial trends in enrolment and completion of massive open online courses

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The past two years have seen rapid development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) with the rise of a number of MOOC platforms. The scale of enrolment and participation in the earliest mainstream MOOC courses has garnered a good deal of media attention. However, data about how the enrolment and completion figures have changed since the early courses is not consistently released. This paper seeks to draw together the data that has found its way into the public domain in order to explore factors affecting enrolment and completion. The average MOOC course is found to enroll around 43,000 students, 6.5% of whom complete the course. Enrolment numbers are decreasing over time and are positively correlated with course length. Completion rates are consistent across time, university rank, and total enrolment, but negatively correlated with course length. This study provides a more detailed view of trends in enrolment and completion than was available previously, and a more accurate view of how the MOOC field is developing.
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paper_title: Massive Open Online Course Completion Rates Revisited: Assessment, Length and Attrition

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This analysis is based upon enrolment and completion data collected for a total of 221 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It extends previously reported work (Jordan, 2014) with an expanded dataset; the original work is extended to include a multiple regression analysis of factors that affect completion rates and analysis of attrition rates during courses. Completion rates (defined as the percentage of enrolled students who completed the course) vary from 0.7% to 52.1%, with a median value of 12.6%. Since their inception, enrolments on MOOCs have fallen while completion rates have increased. Completion rates vary significantly according to course length (longer courses having lower completion rates), start date (more recent courses having higher percentage completion) and assessment type (courses using auto grading only having higher completion rates). For a sub-sample of courses where rates of active use and assessment submission across the course are available, the first and second weeks appear to be critical in achieving student engagement, after which the proportion of active students and those submitting assessments levels out, with less than 3% difference between them.
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paper_title: Does Gamification Work? -- A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification

paper_content:

This paper reviews peer-reviewed empirical studies on gamification. We create a framework for examining the effects of gamification by drawing from the definitions of gamification and the discussion on motivational affordances. The literature review covers results, independent variables (examined motivational affordances), dependent variables (examined psychological/behavioral outcomes from gamification), the contexts of gamification, and types of studies performed on the gamified systems. The paper examines the state of current research on the topic and points out gaps in existing literature. The review indicates that gamification provides positive effects, however, the effects are greatly dependent on the context in which the gamification is being implemented, as well as on the users using it. The findings of the review provide insight for further studies as well as for the design of gamified systems.
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paper_title: MOOCs and the funnel of participation

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Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are growing substantially in numbers, and also in interest from the educational community. MOOCs offer particular challenges for what is becoming accepted as mainstream practice in learning analytics. Partly for this reason, and partly because of the relative newness of MOOCs as a widespread phenomenon, there is not yet a substantial body of literature on the learning analytics of MOOCs. However, one clear finding is that drop-out/non-completion rates are substantially higher than in more traditional education. This paper explores these issues, and introduces the metaphor of a 'funnel of participation' to reconceptualise the steep drop-off in activity, and the pattern of steeply unequal participation, which appear to be characteristic of MOOCs and similar learning environments. Empirical data to support this funnel of participation are presented from three online learning sites: iSpot (observations of nature), Cloudworks ('a place to share, find and discuss learning and teaching ideas and experiences'), and openED 2.0, a MOOC on business and management that ran between 2010--2012. Implications of the funnel for MOOCs, formal education, and learning analytics practice are discussed.
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paper_title: Gamification in MOOC: challenges, opportunities and proposals for advancing MOOC model

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The phenomenon of MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) is increasingly experienced and is challenged by very low completion rates. There are a large number of students who drop out of the course, so it is necessary to find new ways to motivate these students and get them to complete the course. This paper proposes a model to motivate MOOC's students based on gamification using the most attractive and addictive elements of games in environments that are not for play.
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paper_title: MOOCs Completion Rates and Possible Methods to Improve Retention - A Literature Review

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Many MOOCs initiatives continue to report high attrition rates among distance education students. This study investigates why students dropped out or failed their MOOCs. It also provides strategies that can be implemented to increase the retention rate as well as increasing overall student satisfaction. Through studying literature, accurate data analysis and personal observations, the most significant factors that cause high attrition rate of MOOCs are identified. The reasons found are lack of time, lack of learners' motivation, feelings of isolation and the lack of interactivity in MOOCs, insufficient background and skills, and finally hidden costs. As a result, some strategies are identified to increase the online retention rate, and will allow more online students to graduate.
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paper_title: What public media reveals about MOOCs: A systematic analysis of news reports

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One of the striking differences between massive open online courses ( MOOCs) and previous innovations in the education technology field is the unprecedented interest and involvement of the general public. As MOOCs address pressing problems in higher education and the broader educational practice, awareness of the general public debate around MOOCs is essential. Understanding the public discourse around MOOCs can provide insights into important social and public problems, thus enabling the MOOC research community to better focus their research endeavors. While there have been some reports looking at the state of the MOOC-related research, the analysis of the public debate surrounding MOOCs is still largely missing. In this paper, we present the results of a study that looked at the content of the public discourse related to MOOCs. We identified the most important themes and topics in MOOC-related mainstream JOUR reports. Our results indicate that coverage of MOOCs in public media is rapidly decreasing: by the middle of 2014, it decreased by almost 50% from the highest activity during 2013. In addition, the focus of those discussions is also changing. While the majority of discussions during 2012 and 2013 were focused on MOOC providers, the announcements of their partnerships, and million dollar investments, the current focus of MOOC discourse seems to be moving toward more productive topics focused on the overall position of MOOCs in the global educational landscape. Among different topics that this study discovered, government-related issues and the use of data and analytics are some of the topics that seem to be growing in popularity during the first half of 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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paper_title: Gamification in Education: A Systematic Mapping Study

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Introduction Traditional schooling is perceived as ineffective and boring by many students. Although teachers continuously seek novel instructional approaches, it is largely agreed that today's schools face major problems around student motivation and engagement (Lee & Hammer, 2011). The use of educational games as learning tools is a promising approach due to the games' abilities to teach and the fact that they reinforce not only knowledge but also important skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, and communication. Games have remarkable motivational power; they utilize a number of mechanisms to encourage people to engage with them, often without any reward, just for the joy of playing and the possibility to win. Creating a highly engaging, full-blown instructional game however is difficult, time consuming, and costly (Kapp, 2012a), while typically targeting only a single set of learning objectives as chosen by the game designer. In addition, their effective classroom adoption requires certain technical infrastructure and appropriate pedagogical integration. As opposed to using elaborate games requiring a large amount of design and development efforts, the "gamification" approach suggests using game thinking and game design elements to improve learners' engagement and motivation. Gamification, defined by Deterding et al. (2011) as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, is a fairly new and rapidly growing field. The concept of gamification is different from that of an educational or serious game. While the latter describes the design of full-fledged games for non-entertainment purposes, "gamified" applications merely employ elements of games. The term "gamification" is quite recent: According to (Deterding et al., 2011) its first documented use is in 2008 but it did not see widespread adoption before the second half of 2010. Nevertheless, the concept itself is not new. For example, badges and ranks have been long used in the military, in the early Soviet era, game elements were used by the Soviet Union leaders as a substitute for monetary incentives for performing at work, etc. In recent years gamification has seen rapid adoption in business, marketing, corporate management, and wellness and ecology initiatives. This is driven by its potential to shape users' behavior in a desirable direction. Loyalty programs such as the frequent-flyer programs, Foursquare, and Nike+ are often given as examples of successful gamified mass-market products. Stackoverflow.com provides another example in which users' reputations increase as they answer questions and receive votes for their answers. Online education sites such as codeacademy.com and khanacademy.org use game elements to better engage users. The more courses and lessons that users complete, the more badges they earn. Sites like eBay and Fitocracy use game elements to keep people engaged and to encourage friendly competition between users. Gamification is still rising in popularity. According to Gartner's Hype Cycle (Gartner, 2013), a research methodology that outlines an emerging technology's viability for commercial success, gamification is at the peak of the Hype Cycle in 2013, with an expectation for reaching the productivity plateau in five to ten years. This position, however, mainly reflects its use in business contexts. The penetration of the gamification trend in educational settings seems to be still climbing up to the top, as indicated by the amount and annual distribution of the reviewed works. This paper presents the results of a study of the published works on the application of gamification to education, which aims to shed light on the tendencies and emerging practices in this area. There are few literature reviews on gamification (see Xu, 2012; Hamari, Koivisto, & Sarsa, 2014; Nah, Zeng, Telaprolu, Ayyappa, & Eschenbrenner, 2014), with only the last one focusing on education. This study differs from the latter by presenting a thematic analysis instead of narrative summaries that focus on a qualitative review. …
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paper_title: Disruptive Pedagogies and Technologies in Universities

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This paper is a reaction to the increasing high cost of higher education and the resulting inaccessibility for the millions of potential learners now seeking opportunities for quality higher education opportunities. The paper examines the cost centers associated with campus-based and online education systems and then suggests that disaggregation may prove to be a cost-effective way to reduce tuition payments, while maintaining quality. The paper suggests that discount service models, now available to consumers in many industries may also be attractive in new models of higher education. The paper also briefly looks at the Open Educational Resources University initiative, a pilot, collaborative project attempting to test some of these innovations in a consortium of high quality, accredited public universities. Finally, we note both the disruptive characteristics of this model and commiserate opportunities for innovative providers of higher education.
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paper_title: Instructional quality of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

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We present an analysis of instructional design quality of 76 randomly selected Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The quality of MOOCs was determined from first principles of instruction, using a course survey instrument. Two types of MOOCs (xMOOCs and cMOOCs) were analysed and their instructional design quality was assessed and compared. We found that the majority of MOOCs scored poorly on most instructional design principles. However, most MOOCs scored highly on organisation and presentation of course material. The results indicate that although most MOOCs are well-packaged, their instructional design quality is low. We outline implications for practice and ideas for future research. Instructional design quality of 76 randomly selected MOOCs was assessed.Quality was determined from first principles, using a Course Scan instrument.The majority of MOOCs scored poorly on most instructional design principles.Most MOOCs scored highly on organisation and presentation of course material.Although most MOOCs are well-packaged, their instructional design quality is low.
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paper_title: JS: Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation

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Abstract We discuss the expectancy–value theory of motivation, focusing on an expectancy–value model developed and researched by Eccles, Wigfield, and their colleagues. Definitions of crucial constructs in the model, including ability beliefs, expectancies for success, and the components of subjective task values, are provided. These definitions are compared to those of related constructs, including self-efficacy, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and interest. Research is reviewed dealing with two issues: (1) change in children's and adolescents' ability beliefs, expectancies for success, and subjective values, and (2) relations of children's and adolescents' ability-expectancy beliefs and subjective task values to their performance and choice of activities.
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paper_title: Does Gamification Work? -- A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification

paper_content:

This paper reviews peer-reviewed empirical studies on gamification. We create a framework for examining the effects of gamification by drawing from the definitions of gamification and the discussion on motivational affordances. The literature review covers results, independent variables (examined motivational affordances), dependent variables (examined psychological/behavioral outcomes from gamification), the contexts of gamification, and types of studies performed on the gamified systems. The paper examines the state of current research on the topic and points out gaps in existing literature. The review indicates that gamification provides positive effects, however, the effects are greatly dependent on the context in which the gamification is being implemented, as well as on the users using it. The findings of the review provide insight for further studies as well as for the design of gamified systems.
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paper_title: Dropout: MOOC participants’perspective

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Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) open up learning opportunities to a large number of people. A ::: small percentage (around 10%) of the large numbers of participants enrolling in MOOCs manage to finish the course ::: by completing all parts. The term ‘dropout’ is commonly used to refer to ‘all who failed to complete’ a course, and ::: is used in relation to MOOCs. Due to the nature of MOOCs, with students not paying enrolment and tuition fees, ::: there is no direct financial cost incurred by a student. Therefore it is debatable whether the traditional definition of ::: dropout in higher education could be directly applied to MOOCs. This paper reports ongoing exploratory work on ::: MOOC participants’ perspectives based on six qualitative interviews. The findings show that MOOC participants are ::: challenging the widely held view of dropout, suggesting that it is more about failing to achieve their personal aims.
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paper_title: Self-Motivation for Academic Attainment: The Role of Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Personal Goal Setting

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The causal role of students’ self-efficacy beliefs and academic goals in self-motivated academic attainment was studied using path analysis procedures. Parental goal setting and students’ self-efficacy and personal goals at the beginning of the semester served as predictors of students’ final course grades in social studies. In addition, their grades in a prior course in social studies were included in the analyses. A path model of four self-motivation variables and prior grades predicted students ‘final grades in social studies, R = .56. Students’ beliefs in their efficacy for self-regulated learning affected their perceived self-efficacy for academic achievement, which in turn influenced the academic goals they set for themselves and their final academic achievement. Students’ prior grades were predictive of their parents’ grade goals for them, which in turn were linked to the grade goals students set for themselves. These findings were interpreted in terms of the social cognitive theory of academic sel...
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paper_title: Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement.

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This study tested a framework in which goals are proposed to be central determinants of achievement patterns. Learning goals, in which individuals seek to increase their competence, were predicted to promote challenge-seeking and a mastery-oriented response to failure regardless of perceived ability. Performance goals, in which individuals seek to gain favorable judgments of their competence or avoid negative judgments, were predicted to produce challenge-avoidance and learned helplessness when perceived ability was low and to promote certain forms of risk-avoidance even when perceived ability was high. Manipulations of relative goal value (learning vs. performance) and perceived ability (high vs. low) resulted in the predicted differences on measures of task choice, performance during difficulty, and spontaneous verbalizations during difficulty. Particularly striking was the way in which the performance goal-low perceived ability condition produced the same pattern of strategy deterioration, failure attribution, and negative affect found in naturally occurring learned helplessness. Implications for theories of motivation and achievement are discussed.
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paper_title: Exploring Engaging Gamification Mechanics in Massive Online Open Courses

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Introduction Massive online open courses (MOOCs) are a current trend for creating online courses for equipping learning institutions to obtain a free and high quality teaching initiative with relevant visibility on the Internet (Johnson, Becker, Cummins, Freeman, Ifenthaler, & Vardaxis, 2013; Pellas, 2014). MOOCs refer to web platforms that allow millions of learners to access various instructional materials and resources without the constraints of time and place, and additional learning opportunities to supplement traditional classroom instruction, such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX (Lin, 2010; Stoel & Lee, 2003). MOOCs are interactive, online learning tools that support the learning of specific concepts by enhancing, amplifying, and guiding the cognitive processes of learners (Altbach, 2014). MOOCs use the increasing popularity of social networking services (SNSs) such as instant messengers (IMs), Facebook, and Twitter, to facilitate increased social interaction and engage millions of teachers, learners, and parents (Lin, 2010). The learner-learner and learner-instructor interaction created by MOOCs is central to knowledge acquisition and the development of learner cognitive skills, and that interaction is intrinsic to effective instructional practice (Lee & Hammer, 2011; Tobarra, Robles-Gomez, Ros, Hernandez, & Caminero, 2014). MOOCs are an alternative to traditional models of face-to-face education, and have even been viewed as a threat to traditional educational institutions and professionals (Millard, Borthwick, Howard, McSweeney, & Hargood, 2013). Thus, the development of MOOCs has received considerable attention from both educators and learning-technology developers. MOOCs have been an increased focus related to learner participation of MOOCs, given rising tuition costs and concerns regarding learner success and retention rates (Pappano, 2012). Although MOOCs are rapidly developing and gaining enormous popularity, most of them fail to help learners to remain focused on learning content and lead to relatively poor learning efficiency and effectiveness. This phenomenon occurs because most MOOC designs do not provide learners with an engaging experience. Certain researchers have mentioned that MOOCs must enhance learner digital engagement, which refers to the learning and everyday engagement of learners with available technologies in their learning ecologies, including both daily life and school contexts (Gurung & Rutledge, 2014). Therefore, improving learner digital engagement is critical to the development of MOOCs. Certain studies have proposed gamification as a potential solution to alleviate this problem (Grunewald, Meinel, Totschnig, & Willems, 2013; Skiba, 2013; Dicheva, Dichev, Agre, & Angelova, 2015). Gamification incorporates game mechanics into nongame settings to increase user engagement and enjoyment of a product or service, and to encourage users to perform certain behaviours (Hsu, Chang, & Lee, 2013). Gamification essentially functions as entertainment that causes learners to enjoy actively participating and engaging with others, such as through reputation points, rewards, and goal setting. Kapp (2012) indicated that gamification is crucial to the development of learning technology because numerous elements of gamification are based on educational psychology and techniques that instructors have been using for years. Simoes, Redondo, and Vilas (2013) developed a learning platform for K-6 learners, and suggested that education is an area with high potential for applying gamification because it substantially promotes learner motivation and engagement with the learning platform. Sung and Hwang (2013) proposed a gamification mechanism for course websites to improve the learning performance of learners in their learning attitudes, learning motivation, self-efficacy, and learning achievements. Because of the importance of gamification to learner engagement, certain popular MOOCs such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX effectively attract and maintain learners through various gamification designs such as rewards and badges. …
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paper_title: From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification"

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Recent years have seen a rapid proliferation of mass-market consumer software that takes inspiration from video games. Usually summarized as "gamification", this trend connects to a sizeable body of existing concepts and research in human-computer interaction and game studies, such as serious games, pervasive games, alternate reality games, or playful design. However, it is not clear how "gamification" relates to these, whether it denotes a novel phenomenon, and how to define it. Thus, in this paper we investigate "gamification" and the historical origins of the term in relation to precursors and similar concepts. It is suggested that "gamified" applications provide insight into novel, gameful phenomena complementary to playful phenomena. Based on our research, we propose a definition of "gamification" as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts.
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paper_title: Does Gamification Work? -- A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification

paper_content:

This paper reviews peer-reviewed empirical studies on gamification. We create a framework for examining the effects of gamification by drawing from the definitions of gamification and the discussion on motivational affordances. The literature review covers results, independent variables (examined motivational affordances), dependent variables (examined psychological/behavioral outcomes from gamification), the contexts of gamification, and types of studies performed on the gamified systems. The paper examines the state of current research on the topic and points out gaps in existing literature. The review indicates that gamification provides positive effects, however, the effects are greatly dependent on the context in which the gamification is being implemented, as well as on the users using it. The findings of the review provide insight for further studies as well as for the design of gamified systems.
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paper_title: Serious games: Mechanisms and effects

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Foreword Ben Sawyer PART I. Serious Games: Explication of an Oxymoron Introduction Ute Ritterfeld, Michael Cody & Peter Vorderer Classifying serious games Rabindra Ratan & Ute Ritterfeld Enjoyment of digital games: What makes them "seriously" fun? Hua Wang, Cuihua Shen & Ute Ritterfeld Serious games and seriously fun games: Can they be one and the same? Cuihua Shen, Hua Wang & Ute Ritterfeld PART II. Theories and Mechanisms SERIOUS GAMES FOR LEARNING Deep learning properties of good digital games: How far can they go? Paul Gee Deep learning and emotion in serious games Arthur Graesser, Patrick Chipman, Frank Leeming & Suzanne Biedenbach Psychological and communicological theories of learning and emotion underlying serious games Jennings Bryant & Wes Fondren Designing Serious Games for Learning and Health in Informal and Formal Settings Debra Lieberman What do children learn from playing digital games? Fran S. Blumberg & Sabrina S. Ismailer SERIOUS GAMES FOR DEVELOPMENT The impact of serious games on childhood development John Sherry & Jayson Dibble Designing serious games for children and adolescents: What developmental psychology can teach us Kaveri Subrahmanyam & Patricia Greenfield Door to another me: Identity construction through digital game play Elly Konijn & Marije Nije Bijvank Identity formation and emotion regulation in digital gaming Ute Ritterfeld Serious games for girls? Considering gender in learning with digital games Yasmin Kafai Girls as serious gamers: pitfalls and possibilities Jeroen Jansz & Mirjam Vosmeer Serious games and social change: Why they (should) work Christoph Klimmt Entertainment education through digital games Hua Wang & Arvind Singhal PART IV. Methodological Challenges Melding the power of serious games and embedded assessment to monitor and foster learning: flow and grow Valerie J. Shute, Matthew Ventura, Malcolm Bauer & Diego Zapata-Rivera Making the implicit explicit. Embedded measurement in serious games Gary Bente & Johannes Breuer Evaluating the potential of serious games: What can we learn from previous research on media effects and educational intervention? Marco Ennemoser Improving methodology in serious games research with elaborated theory James H. Watt Generalizability and validity in digital game research Mike Shapiro & Jorge Pena Designing game research: addressing questions of validity Niklas Ravaja & Matias Kivikangas PART V. Applications, Limitations, and Future Directions Three-dimensional game environments for recovery from stroke Younbo Jung, Shih-Chih Yeh, Margaret McLaughlin, Albert A. Rizzo & Carolee Winstein Reducing risky sexual decision-making in the virtual and in the real-world: Serious games, intelligent agents, and a SOLVE Approach Lynn C. Miller, John L. Christensen, Carlos G. Godoy, Paul Robert Appleby, Charisse Corsbie-Massay, and Stephen J. Read From serious games to serious gaming Henry Jenkins, Brett Camper, Alex Chisholm, Neal Grigsby, Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil, Judy Perry. Philip Tan, Matthew Weise & Teo Chor Guan Immersive serious games for large scale multiplayer dialogue and co-creation Stacey Spiegel & Rodney Hoinkes The gaming dispositif. An analysis of serious games from a humanities perspective Joost Raessens
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paper_title: The literature review : six steps to success

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Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors 1. The Literature Review Process: Getting Started The Purpose of a Literature Review The Literature Review Definition The Literature Review Process Inquiry: The Necessary Precondition Pack Wisely Before You Begin Tips Summary Checklist 2. Selecting the Topic: Everyday Interest to Research Interest Introduction: Selecting a Research Topic Step 1: Choosing a Research Interest Exercises Researcher Bias Step 2: Specifying a Research Interest Focusing the Interest Selecting a Vantage Point Reflection: The Key to Interest Selection Step 3: From Research Interest to Research Topic Accessing the Research Conversation: Formalizing the Research Topic Tips Summary Checklist 3. Searching the Literature: Tasks and Tools Introduction: Searching the Literature Discovering the Literature to Review Conducting a Literature Search Previewing the Data: Scanning the Literature Using the Internet Managing Your Data Selecting the Data: Skimming the Literature Mapping: An Overview Mapping by Core Concept Mapping by Author Contribution Refining the Topic Expanding the Topic Tips Summary Checklist 4. Developing the Argument: Making the Case for the Literature Review Introduction: Arguments and the Literature Review Building the Case for the Literature Review Arguments Evaluating the Basic Parts of an Argument Claims Types of Claims Acceptability of Claims Data Versus Evidence Data Quality Data Relevance Qualifying the Claim Warranting: Building the Rationale for the Argument Multiple Claims Arguments Tips Summary Checklist 5. Doing the Literature Survey: Building the Argument of Discovery Introduction: The Next Steps The Survey of the Literature Stage 1: Assembly Assembling the Data Recording the Data Stage 2: Synthesis Synthesizing the Information, Building Evidence Integrating the Data, Building Claims Reasoning Patterns Stage 3: Analyzing, Building the Argument of Discovery Complex Reasoning Divergent Reasoning Comparative Reasoning Building the Discovery Argument: An Example Mapping the Argument of Discovery Analyzing the Argument Tips Summary Checklist 6. The Literature Critique: Interpreting the Research The Literature Critique Implicative Reasoning: The Literature Critique The Two Arguments Argument Patterns Backing Fallacies The Case Is Everything Tips Summary Checklist 7. Writing the Review: Write, Audit, Edit The Writing Process: An Overview Writing to Understand: An Overview Exploratory Writing: Creating Writing Readiness Exploratory Writing: The Literature Review Outlining: An Overview Some Common Outlining Mistakes Outlining the Literature Review The Introduction to the Literature Review The Body of the Literature Review The Background of the Study The Thesis Argument The Summation of the Literature Review Auditing and Editing the Outline Tips on Writing Drafts The Preliminary Draft: An Overview The Preliminary Draft: The Write Tips on Writing the Early Drafts Style Manuals and Author's Guides Preliminary Draft: The Audit Preliminary Draft: The Edit Writing to Be Understood The First Draft The First Draft Audit: The Outside Review The Second and Third Drafts: Polishing the Work The Second Draft and Beyond: Writing the Polished Work The Polished Draft Audit: The Referred Review The Final Tip Summary References Index
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paper_title: Does Gamification Work? -- A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification

paper_content:

This paper reviews peer-reviewed empirical studies on gamification. We create a framework for examining the effects of gamification by drawing from the definitions of gamification and the discussion on motivational affordances. The literature review covers results, independent variables (examined motivational affordances), dependent variables (examined psychological/behavioral outcomes from gamification), the contexts of gamification, and types of studies performed on the gamified systems. The paper examines the state of current research on the topic and points out gaps in existing literature. The review indicates that gamification provides positive effects, however, the effects are greatly dependent on the context in which the gamification is being implemented, as well as on the users using it. The findings of the review provide insight for further studies as well as for the design of gamified systems.
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paper_title: Does Gamification Work? -- A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification

paper_content:

This paper reviews peer-reviewed empirical studies on gamification. We create a framework for examining the effects of gamification by drawing from the definitions of gamification and the discussion on motivational affordances. The literature review covers results, independent variables (examined motivational affordances), dependent variables (examined psychological/behavioral outcomes from gamification), the contexts of gamification, and types of studies performed on the gamified systems. The paper examines the state of current research on the topic and points out gaps in existing literature. The review indicates that gamification provides positive effects, however, the effects are greatly dependent on the context in which the gamification is being implemented, as well as on the users using it. The findings of the review provide insight for further studies as well as for the design of gamified systems.
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paper_title: Designing MOOCs for the Support of Multiple Learning Styles

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"Internetworking with TCP/IP" is a Massive Open Online Course, held in German at openHPI end of 2012, that attracted a large audience that has not been in contact with higher education before. The course followed the xMOOC model based on a well-defined sequence of learning content, mainly video lectures and interactive self-tests, and with heavy reliance on social collaboration features. From 2726 active participants, 38% have participated in a survey at the end of the course. This paper presents an analysis of the survey responses with respect to the following questions: 1 How can a MOOC accommodate different learning styles and 2 What recommendations for the design and organization of a MOOC can be concluded from the responses? We finally give an outlook on challenges for the further development of openHPI. Those challenges are based on didactical and technical affordances for a better support of the different learning styles. We propose an evolution of the xMOOC, that bridges the gap to the cMOOC model by developing tools that allow users to create diverging paths through the learning material, involve the user personally in the problem domain with group hands-on exercises and reward user contributions by means of gamification.
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paper_title: Trends and Patterns in Massive Open Online Courses: Review and Content Analysis of Research on MOOCs (2008-2015)

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To fully understand the phenomenon of massive open online courses (MOOCs), it is important to identify and map trends and patterns in research on MOOCs. This study does so by reviewing 362 empirical articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 2008 to 2015. For the purpose of this study, content analysis and discourse analysis were employed to analyze the articles. Accordingly, the trend line showing the number of articles per year indicates that the extent of research on MOOCs is likely to increase in the coming years. In terms of research areas, the findings reveal an imbalance and three research areas out of fifteen constitute more than half of all research on MOOCs. With regard to types of MOOCs, related literature is dominated by research on xMOOCs. The discourse in MOOC articles takes a mostly neutral standpoint, articles with a positive outlook outweigh those that are negative, and there is an increase in a more critical discourse. Theoretical or conceptual studies are preferred by researchers, although MOOC research generally does not benefit from being viewed through theoretical or conceptual lenses.
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paper_title: The gamification of a MOOC platform

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Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have left their mark on the face of education during the recent years. At the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam, Germany, we are actively developing a MOOC platform, which provides our research with a plethora of e-learning topics, such as learning analytics, automated assessment, peer assessment, team-work, online proctoring, and gamification. We run several instances of this platform. On openHPI, we provide our own courses from within the HPI context. Further instances are openSAP, openWHO, and mooc.HOUSE, which is the smallest of these platforms, targeting customers with a less extensive course portfolio. In 2013, we started to work on the gamification of our platform. By now, we have implemented about two thirds of the features that we initially have evaluated as useful for our purposes. About a year ago we activated the implemented gamification features on mooc.HOUSE. Before activating the features on openHPI as well, we examined, and re-evaluated our initial considerations based on the data we collected so far and the changes in other contexts of our platforms.
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paper_title: New challenges for the motivation and learning in engineering education using gamification in MOOC

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The phenomenon of MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) is increasingly experienced and is giving rise to new scenariosand challenges with several features that are different from previous approaches to online education. In the field ofengineering education, Information and Communication Technologies are making continuous innovation in methods ofteaching and learning for students. Engineering Education institutions, like the Technical University of Madrid (Spain),are expanding their online offerings and making a more effective use of technologies for learning.This research presents a gamification cooperative MOOC model (gcMOOC) that can be applied in the design of this typeof course. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, which integrates the quantitative and qualitativemethods, the study investigates the factors that influence motivation, collaboration and learning in gcMOOC.This work also suggests a set of practical recommendations and tools to improve the motivation, learning level andcompletion rate of participants in MOOC course in Engineering Educational when the gcMOOC model is implemented.The results of this study state that the incorporation of virtual communities and gamification methodologies increaseparticipant learning motivation in engineering MOOC courses. Additionally, these gamification tools aid students todeepen their learning and involve them in the course increasing their motivation and the completion rates in MOOCs.
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paper_title: MyMOOCSpace: A cloud-based mobile system to support effective collaboration in higher education online courses

paper_content:

In recent years, institutions of higher education have been using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as an alternative to enhance and innovate traditional classroom practices. One of the approaches to this type of innovation consists of using the platforms where MOOCs are hosted for the development of courses that are aligned to their on-campus curricular contents. They are known as Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs), which allow online access to knowledge for groups of students with a well-defined profile. The platforms where MOOCs (and SPOCs) are hosted have been designed to support large volumes of data and visits. However, these platforms present important limitations regarding the implementation of collaborative learning activities. To address this problem, this article presents MyMOOCSpace, a cloud-based mobile system aimed at supporting effective collaboration in MOOCs, by combining key aspects of collaboration from the research area of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) with game-based dynamics. MyMOOCSpace has been tested in three quasi-experiments that were run in four Latin-American universities with a total of 68 participants. The objective was to assess its usability and its effect in enhancing collaboration among students in a SPOC. The results obtained on usability show that MyMOOCSpace is easy to use, and that participants felt pleased with while using it. Finally, it was observed that MyMOOCSpace managed to enhance interaction and collaboration among students.
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paper_title: The gamification of a MOOC platform

paper_content:

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have left their mark on the face of education during the recent years. At the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam, Germany, we are actively developing a MOOC platform, which provides our research with a plethora of e-learning topics, such as learning analytics, automated assessment, peer assessment, team-work, online proctoring, and gamification. We run several instances of this platform. On openHPI, we provide our own courses from within the HPI context. Further instances are openSAP, openWHO, and mooc.HOUSE, which is the smallest of these platforms, targeting customers with a less extensive course portfolio. In 2013, we started to work on the gamification of our platform. By now, we have implemented about two thirds of the features that we initially have evaluated as useful for our purposes. About a year ago we activated the implemented gamification features on mooc.HOUSE. Before activating the features on openHPI as well, we examined, and re-evaluated our initial considerations based on the data we collected so far and the changes in other contexts of our platforms.
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paper_title: Does Gamification Work? -- A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification

paper_content:

This paper reviews peer-reviewed empirical studies on gamification. We create a framework for examining the effects of gamification by drawing from the definitions of gamification and the discussion on motivational affordances. The literature review covers results, independent variables (examined motivational affordances), dependent variables (examined psychological/behavioral outcomes from gamification), the contexts of gamification, and types of studies performed on the gamified systems. The paper examines the state of current research on the topic and points out gaps in existing literature. The review indicates that gamification provides positive effects, however, the effects are greatly dependent on the context in which the gamification is being implemented, as well as on the users using it. The findings of the review provide insight for further studies as well as for the design of gamified systems.
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paper_title: Gamification in MOOCs to enhance users' goal achievement

paper_content:

Gamification in engineering education has been applied with success in the last years. Also, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are recognized as a good strategy to enhance engineering education. Nevertheless, MOOCs have two main weaknesses: first, lack of addressing personal goals; and second, low completion rates in comparison to the number of registrations to the MOOCs. To improve learning experiences in MOOCs and to strengthen self-regulated personalized learning we propose the application of gamification in MOOCs. Our assumption is that MOOC learners will better succeed in achieving their goals if they can individually personalize and plan their learning paths through gamification. This assumption is based on the implementation intention theory which claims that people who foster their goal intentions with implementation intentions are comparatively more successful in their personal goal achievements. Based on a preliminary literature review this article presents and arguments on our research idea on how to apply gamification to enhance MOOC users' goal achievement. Besides, it introduces a new perspective on MOOC completion rates based on the user intention and a new way of measuring it via the Personal Goal Achievement Ratio (PGAR) and the Overall Goal Achievement Ratio (OGAR).
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paper_title: Exploring Engaging Gamification Mechanics in Massive Online Open Courses

paper_content:

Introduction Massive online open courses (MOOCs) are a current trend for creating online courses for equipping learning institutions to obtain a free and high quality teaching initiative with relevant visibility on the Internet (Johnson, Becker, Cummins, Freeman, Ifenthaler, & Vardaxis, 2013; Pellas, 2014). MOOCs refer to web platforms that allow millions of learners to access various instructional materials and resources without the constraints of time and place, and additional learning opportunities to supplement traditional classroom instruction, such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX (Lin, 2010; Stoel & Lee, 2003). MOOCs are interactive, online learning tools that support the learning of specific concepts by enhancing, amplifying, and guiding the cognitive processes of learners (Altbach, 2014). MOOCs use the increasing popularity of social networking services (SNSs) such as instant messengers (IMs), Facebook, and Twitter, to facilitate increased social interaction and engage millions of teachers, learners, and parents (Lin, 2010). The learner-learner and learner-instructor interaction created by MOOCs is central to knowledge acquisition and the development of learner cognitive skills, and that interaction is intrinsic to effective instructional practice (Lee & Hammer, 2011; Tobarra, Robles-Gomez, Ros, Hernandez, & Caminero, 2014). MOOCs are an alternative to traditional models of face-to-face education, and have even been viewed as a threat to traditional educational institutions and professionals (Millard, Borthwick, Howard, McSweeney, & Hargood, 2013). Thus, the development of MOOCs has received considerable attention from both educators and learning-technology developers. MOOCs have been an increased focus related to learner participation of MOOCs, given rising tuition costs and concerns regarding learner success and retention rates (Pappano, 2012). Although MOOCs are rapidly developing and gaining enormous popularity, most of them fail to help learners to remain focused on learning content and lead to relatively poor learning efficiency and effectiveness. This phenomenon occurs because most MOOC designs do not provide learners with an engaging experience. Certain researchers have mentioned that MOOCs must enhance learner digital engagement, which refers to the learning and everyday engagement of learners with available technologies in their learning ecologies, including both daily life and school contexts (Gurung & Rutledge, 2014). Therefore, improving learner digital engagement is critical to the development of MOOCs. Certain studies have proposed gamification as a potential solution to alleviate this problem (Grunewald, Meinel, Totschnig, & Willems, 2013; Skiba, 2013; Dicheva, Dichev, Agre, & Angelova, 2015). Gamification incorporates game mechanics into nongame settings to increase user engagement and enjoyment of a product or service, and to encourage users to perform certain behaviours (Hsu, Chang, & Lee, 2013). Gamification essentially functions as entertainment that causes learners to enjoy actively participating and engaging with others, such as through reputation points, rewards, and goal setting. Kapp (2012) indicated that gamification is crucial to the development of learning technology because numerous elements of gamification are based on educational psychology and techniques that instructors have been using for years. Simoes, Redondo, and Vilas (2013) developed a learning platform for K-6 learners, and suggested that education is an area with high potential for applying gamification because it substantially promotes learner motivation and engagement with the learning platform. Sung and Hwang (2013) proposed a gamification mechanism for course websites to improve the learning performance of learners in their learning attitudes, learning motivation, self-efficacy, and learning achievements. Because of the importance of gamification to learner engagement, certain popular MOOCs such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX effectively attract and maintain learners through various gamification designs such as rewards and badges. …
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paper_title: Gamification designs in Wearable Enhanced Learning for healthy ageing

paper_content:

Supporting healthy ageing through sustained physical fitness requires interventions that promote healthy levels of physical activity as part of daily life. Wearable devices, such as activity trackers are body-worn and may be seamlessly integrated into daily activities to promote fitness. Although wearables have been used by younger adopters to optimise physical fitness, little is known so far how these emerging technologies may be leveraged to enhance learning and improve well-being and fitness of seniors. In this paper we present a novel approach to designing Wearable Enhanced Learning (WELL) for healthy ageing as part of the R&D project “Fitness MOOC - interaction of seniors with wearable fitness trackers in the MOOC (fMOOC)”. The fMOOC project is a cooperation between Beuth University of Applied Sciences and the Geriatrics Research Group at Charite Berlin and aims at enhancing healthy ageing through an embodied learning experience in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) with support of wearable activity trackers. This paper focuses on gamification designs in wearable enhanced learning for senior users and addresses the issue of user engagement.
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paper_title: MOOCs and the funnel of participation

paper_content:

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are growing substantially in numbers, and also in interest from the educational community. MOOCs offer particular challenges for what is becoming accepted as mainstream practice in learning analytics. Partly for this reason, and partly because of the relative newness of MOOCs as a widespread phenomenon, there is not yet a substantial body of literature on the learning analytics of MOOCs. However, one clear finding is that drop-out/non-completion rates are substantially higher than in more traditional education. This paper explores these issues, and introduces the metaphor of a 'funnel of participation' to reconceptualise the steep drop-off in activity, and the pattern of steeply unequal participation, which appear to be characteristic of MOOCs and similar learning environments. Empirical data to support this funnel of participation are presented from three online learning sites: iSpot (observations of nature), Cloudworks ('a place to share, find and discuss learning and teaching ideas and experiences'), and openED 2.0, a MOOC on business and management that ran between 2010--2012. Implications of the funnel for MOOCs, formal education, and learning analytics practice are discussed.
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paper_title: MyMOOCSpace: A cloud-based mobile system to support effective collaboration in higher education online courses

paper_content:

In recent years, institutions of higher education have been using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as an alternative to enhance and innovate traditional classroom practices. One of the approaches to this type of innovation consists of using the platforms where MOOCs are hosted for the development of courses that are aligned to their on-campus curricular contents. They are known as Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs), which allow online access to knowledge for groups of students with a well-defined profile. The platforms where MOOCs (and SPOCs) are hosted have been designed to support large volumes of data and visits. However, these platforms present important limitations regarding the implementation of collaborative learning activities. To address this problem, this article presents MyMOOCSpace, a cloud-based mobile system aimed at supporting effective collaboration in MOOCs, by combining key aspects of collaboration from the research area of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) with game-based dynamics. MyMOOCSpace has been tested in three quasi-experiments that were run in four Latin-American universities with a total of 68 participants. The objective was to assess its usability and its effect in enhancing collaboration among students in a SPOC. The results obtained on usability show that MyMOOCSpace is easy to use, and that participants felt pleased with while using it. Finally, it was observed that MyMOOCSpace managed to enhance interaction and collaboration among students.
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paper_title: Gamification in Education: A Systematic Mapping Study

paper_content:

Introduction Traditional schooling is perceived as ineffective and boring by many students. Although teachers continuously seek novel instructional approaches, it is largely agreed that today's schools face major problems around student motivation and engagement (Lee & Hammer, 2011). The use of educational games as learning tools is a promising approach due to the games' abilities to teach and the fact that they reinforce not only knowledge but also important skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, and communication. Games have remarkable motivational power; they utilize a number of mechanisms to encourage people to engage with them, often without any reward, just for the joy of playing and the possibility to win. Creating a highly engaging, full-blown instructional game however is difficult, time consuming, and costly (Kapp, 2012a), while typically targeting only a single set of learning objectives as chosen by the game designer. In addition, their effective classroom adoption requires certain technical infrastructure and appropriate pedagogical integration. As opposed to using elaborate games requiring a large amount of design and development efforts, the "gamification" approach suggests using game thinking and game design elements to improve learners' engagement and motivation. Gamification, defined by Deterding et al. (2011) as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, is a fairly new and rapidly growing field. The concept of gamification is different from that of an educational or serious game. While the latter describes the design of full-fledged games for non-entertainment purposes, "gamified" applications merely employ elements of games. The term "gamification" is quite recent: According to (Deterding et al., 2011) its first documented use is in 2008 but it did not see widespread adoption before the second half of 2010. Nevertheless, the concept itself is not new. For example, badges and ranks have been long used in the military, in the early Soviet era, game elements were used by the Soviet Union leaders as a substitute for monetary incentives for performing at work, etc. In recent years gamification has seen rapid adoption in business, marketing, corporate management, and wellness and ecology initiatives. This is driven by its potential to shape users' behavior in a desirable direction. Loyalty programs such as the frequent-flyer programs, Foursquare, and Nike+ are often given as examples of successful gamified mass-market products. Stackoverflow.com provides another example in which users' reputations increase as they answer questions and receive votes for their answers. Online education sites such as codeacademy.com and khanacademy.org use game elements to better engage users. The more courses and lessons that users complete, the more badges they earn. Sites like eBay and Fitocracy use game elements to keep people engaged and to encourage friendly competition between users. Gamification is still rising in popularity. According to Gartner's Hype Cycle (Gartner, 2013), a research methodology that outlines an emerging technology's viability for commercial success, gamification is at the peak of the Hype Cycle in 2013, with an expectation for reaching the productivity plateau in five to ten years. This position, however, mainly reflects its use in business contexts. The penetration of the gamification trend in educational settings seems to be still climbing up to the top, as indicated by the amount and annual distribution of the reviewed works. This paper presents the results of a study of the published works on the application of gamification to education, which aims to shed light on the tendencies and emerging practices in this area. There are few literature reviews on gamification (see Xu, 2012; Hamari, Koivisto, & Sarsa, 2014; Nah, Zeng, Telaprolu, Ayyappa, & Eschenbrenner, 2014), with only the last one focusing on education. This study differs from the latter by presenting a thematic analysis instead of narrative summaries that focus on a qualitative review. …
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paper_title: Gamification in MOOCs to enhance users' goal achievement

paper_content:

Gamification in engineering education has been applied with success in the last years. Also, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are recognized as a good strategy to enhance engineering education. Nevertheless, MOOCs have two main weaknesses: first, lack of addressing personal goals; and second, low completion rates in comparison to the number of registrations to the MOOCs. To improve learning experiences in MOOCs and to strengthen self-regulated personalized learning we propose the application of gamification in MOOCs. Our assumption is that MOOC learners will better succeed in achieving their goals if they can individually personalize and plan their learning paths through gamification. This assumption is based on the implementation intention theory which claims that people who foster their goal intentions with implementation intentions are comparatively more successful in their personal goal achievements. Based on a preliminary literature review this article presents and arguments on our research idea on how to apply gamification to enhance MOOC users' goal achievement. Besides, it introduces a new perspective on MOOC completion rates based on the user intention and a new way of measuring it via the Personal Goal Achievement Ratio (PGAR) and the Overall Goal Achievement Ratio (OGAR).
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paper_title: GamES MOOC - Conceptual Ideas and First Steps Towards Implementation of a MOOC for Children

paper_content:

This paper presents conceptual ideas and a first prototype towards establishing a GamES (GAM)ified (E)lementary (S)chool MOOC for children who do not have access to schools. The project is being developed across several Bachelor student projects in collaboration between Cooperative State University, Karlsruhe and the German University of Cairo. A hybrid architecture is designed to support children on mobile devices with intermittent Internet access. Upon access, current learning status and new content are updated. The content consists of leveled games addressing skills defined by the US common core standards for K-5 in subjects Mathematics and English (that can be adapted to other languages). The children's MOOC combines ideas of adaptive user interface, off-line personalized learning, common core standards, and game-based learning. The child's user interface is gamified and after initial registration designed to be manageable for K-5 graders. A second interface addresses the community of game developers who are interested in donating games for certain core skills. In a next step, assessment and government certification of achievements will be tackled. The MOOC software is intended as open source to allow for community development.
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paper_title: BrasilEduca — An open-source MOOC platform for Portuguese speakers with gamification concepts

paper_content:

The use of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has been increasing in the past years. But there's still some problems that need to be solved and a lot of discussion can be done around this subject. Also, there is a lack of courses available to people who does not speak or understand English. Because of that, this project proposes a platform for Portuguese speakers tied up with gamification concepts to motivate and engage more students than the usual MOOC platforms. This approach was decided because the rate of students who accomplish courses on MOOCs are slightly below 10%. We believe in the potential and impacts of this platform, and we aim to help countries such Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and so many others that have Portuguese as primary language. The advantage of MOOCs is that they generally don't require fees nor prerequisites other than Internet access. This make MOOCs an excellent tool for countries that need to improve their educational system.
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Title: Gamification in MOOCs: A Review of the State of the Art

Section 1: INTRODUCTION
Description 1: Write an introduction to the topic, including the growing interest in gamification in education, the issues with MOOC completion rates, and the potential for gamification to address these issues.

Section 2: Theories about Motivation and implications on research
Description 2: Describe the major theories about motivation, their relevance to students' participation in MOOCs, and how they can inform research on gamification.

Section 3: Gamification
Description 3: Explain what gamification is, how it differs from serious gaming, and the various gamification elements and their potential applications in MOOCs.

Section 4: METHODOLOGY
Description 4: Detail the methodology used for the literature review, including the process of selecting and analyzing the articles.

Section 5: Assembling and Analysis
Description 5: Discuss the process of collecting, coding, and analyzing the data from the selected articles.

Section 6: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Description 6: Present and discuss the findings from the reviewed literature, including the types of studies, publication stats, implementation of gamification, theories and drivers, effectiveness of gamification, and identified limitations and challenges.

Section 7: CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Description 7: Summarize the conclusions drawn from the review and provide recommendations for future research on gamification in MOOCs.