Mapping Gaming Elements with Gamification Categories: Immersion, Achievement, and Social in a MOOC Setting

Abstract

The growing participation of educational institutions in the movement of massive open online courses (MOOCs) generates a great multitude of opportunities and challenges. Firstly, the high dropout rate and the lack of learners' motivation are significant issues in MOOCs, which cast doubt on the quality of teaching and learning. Secondly, MOOC users' diversity creates problems and barriers to MOOC providers in designing successful and effective courses that will suit all types of users. It is still unclear to think about how to reach various types of MOOC participants. In this regard, gamification is proposed as a complement to existing learning approaches to provide learners with a powerful and motivational learning experience. For decreasing the high dropout rates in MOOCs and to engage the learners and improve their motivation by adopting gamification in education, this study aims to classify gamification into three categories: achievement, social, and immersion (ASI). Furthermore, 27 gaming elements are identified that have been used in a MOOC context and are mapped to the aforementioned categories in order to help the MOOC developers and designers better understand how the various gamification categories can influence the users.