Data-Driven Analysis of Engagement in Gamified Learning Environments: A Methodology for Real-Time Measurement of MOOCs

Abstract

Welfare and economic development is directly dependent on the availability of highly skilled and educated individuals in society. In the UK, higher education is accessed by a large percentage of high school graduates (50% in 2017). Still, in Brazil, a limited number of pupils leaving high schools continue their education (up to 20%). Initial pioneering efforts of universities and companies to support pupils from underprivileged backgrounds, to be able to succeed in being accepted by universities include personalised learning solutions. However, initial findings show that typical distance learning problems occur with the pupil population: isolation, demotivation, and lack of engagement. Thus, researchers and companies proposed gamification. However, gamification design is traditionally exclusively based on theory-driven approaches and usually ignore the data itself. This paper takes a different approach, presenting a large-scale study that analysed, statistically and via machine learning (deep and shallow), the first batch of students trained with a Brazilian gamified intelligent learning software (called CamaleOn), to establish, via a grassroots method based on learning analytics, how gamification elements impact on student engagement. The exercise results in a novel proposal for real-time measurement on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), potentially leading to iterative improvements of student support. It also specifically analyses the engagement patterns of an underserved community.

Indicators for enhancing learners’ engagement in massive open online courses: A systematic review

“…x Khalil et al [58] x Petronzi and Hadi [79] x Zheng et al [120] x Ferguson and Clow [37] x Chang and Wei [21] x Rodriguez et al [85] x Walji et al [105] x Lu et al [68] x Vaibhav and Gupta [104] x Sunar et al [97] x Perez-Alvarez et al [78] x Dubbaka and Gopalan [36] x Anutariya and Thongsuntia [4] x Ramesh et al [82] x Kaveri et al [55] x Floratos et al [40] x Romero-Rodriguez et al [86] x Jung and Lee [54] x Li and Baker [66] x Williams et al [112] x Phan et al [80] x Barak et al [11] x Gregori et al [44] x Gallego-Romero et al [41] x Lan and Hew [64] x Alharbi et al [2] x Balasooriya et al [9] x Rizzardini and Amado-Salvatierra [83] x Khalil and Ebner [57] x Goldberg et al [42] x Rebecca Ferguson et al [39] x Antonaci et al [3] x Shi and Cristea [94] x (continued on next page)…”

“…This is a key issue course designers need to understand about MOOC learners' heterogeneous nature. The dual-layer framework x Bonafini et al [13] x x Labarthe et al [63] x Borrás-Gené et al [14] x Sharif and Guilland [93] x Sun and Bin [95] Cook et al [26] x Cassidy et al [18] x Crosslin et al [29] x x Khalil et al [58] x x Petronzi and Hadi [79] x Zheng et al [120] x Ferguson and Clow [37] x Chang and Wei [21] x Rodriguez et al [85] x x Walji et al [105] x Lu et al [68] x x Vaibhav and Gupta [104] x Sunar et al [97] x Perez-Alvarez et al [78] x x x x Dubbaka and Gopalan [36] x Anutariya and Thongsuntia [4] x x x Ramesh et al [82] x x x x Kaveri et al [55] x x x x Floratos et al [40] x x x x Romero-Rodriguez et al [86] x Jung and Lee [54] x x x x Li and Baker [66] x x x x Williams et al [112] x x Phan et al [80] x x x x Barak et al [11] x x x x Gregori et al [44] x x x x Gallego-Romero et al [41] x x x x x Lan and Hew [64] x x x x Alharbi et al [2] x x Balasooriya et al [9] x x x Rizzardini and Amado-Salvatierra [83] x x x x Khalil and Ebner [57] x x x x Goldberg et al [42] x x x x x x Rebecca Ferguson et al [39] x x x x…”

Kitlesel Açık Çevrimiçi Ders Ortamlarında Öğrenci Katılımı

“…The number and quality of interactions of students with each other or with the instructor affect student engagement and, therefore, student performance (Baek & Shore, 2016;Cheng, 2022). In online environments such as MOOCs, the student experiences a feeling of isolation, which is one of the main difficulties in distance education, and a decreased motivation to learn, and it is known that this situation leads to low student engagement (Alharbi et al, 2020).…”

“…Interventions to improve learners' communication and interaction with other learners and instructors in MOOC settings will help the learner experience less isolation, which will support higher learning motivation and learner engagement. Gamification, one of the interventions aimed at improving the learner's interaction with the environment, is another crucial factor in terms of student engagement in these environments (Alharbi et al, 2020;Antonaci et al, 2019;Morales et al, 2016;Vaibhav & Gupta, 2014). Papers involving [193] gamification intervention show that these environments increase learner motivation and performance, as well as learner completion rates (i.e., Alharbi et al, 2020;Morales et al, 2016;Romero-Rodríguez et al, 2019).…”

“…8). Indeed, Alharbi et al (2020) suggested that new types of behavior and patterns are emerging in major online environments such as MOOCs. Motivation is one of the main factors in studies that discuss the aspects of individuals' behavior and goals in MOOCs settings (Hakami et al, 2017;Moore & Blackmon, 2022;Wu & Zhang, 2016).…”