In-depth exploration of engagement patterns in MOOCs.

With the advent of ‘big data’, various new methods have been proposed, to explore data in several domains. In the domain of learning (and e-learning, in particular), the outcomes lag somewhat behind. This is not unexpected, as e-learning has the additional dimensions of learning and engagement, as well as other psychological aspects, to name but a few, beyond ‘simple’ data crunching. This means that the goals of data exploration for e-learning are somewhat different to the goals for practically all other domains: finding out what students do is not enough, it is the means to the end of supporting student learning and increasing their engagement. This paper focuses specifically on student engagement, a crucial issue especially for MOOCs, by studying in much greater detail than previous work, the engagement of students based on clustering students according to three fundamental (and, arguably, comprehensive) dimensions: learning, social and assessment. The study’s value lies also in the fact that it is among the few studies using real-world longitudinal data (6 runs of a course, over 3 years) from a large number of students

Contextual gamification of social interaction : towards increasing motivation in social e-learning

In current e-learning studies, one of the main challenges is to keep learners motivated in performing desirable learning behaviours and achieving learning goals. Towards tackling this challenge, social e-learning contributes favourably, but it requires solutions that can reduce side effects, such as abusing social interaction tools for 'chitchat', and further enhance learner motivation. In this paper, we propose a set of contextual gamification strategies, which apply flow and self-determination theory for increasing intrinsic motivation in social e-learning environments. This paper also presents a social e-learning environment that applies these strategies, followed by a user case study, which indicates increased learners' perceived intrinsic motivation

The Remediation of Nosferatu: exploring transmedia experiences

In this paper we present The Remediation of Nosferatu, a location based augmented reality horror adventure. Using the theory of fictional universe elements, we work with diverse material from Nosferatu's horror genre and vampire themes as a case study. In this interdisciplinary research we intertwine traditional storytelling and scriptwriting skills with interaction design methods. For the game setting, we create hybrid spaces merging the fictional universe and the physical environment into one pervasive experience, centering around a variety of augmented reality activities played out at sunset. Focusing on the phenomenological world of 21 participants, we analyse triangulated data by distinguishing between a range of more 'open' and 'closed' styles of interactions. Our study illustrates how Speculative Play may enable non-linear storytelling elements within a transmedia fictional universe. We believe our approach can be more generally useful for designing future rich, enjoyable and meaningful transmedia experiences. Copyright © 2014 ACM

An Ontology Engineering Approach to Gamify Collaborative Learning Scenarios

The design of collaborative learning (CL) scenarios that increase both students’ learning and motivation is a challenge that the CSCL community has been addressing in the past few years. On one hand, CSCL design (i.e. scripts) has been shown to be effective to support meaningful interactions and better learning. On the other hand, scripted collaboration often does not motivate students to participate in the CL process, which makes more difficult the use of group activities over time. To deal with the problem of motivation, researchers and educators are now looking at gamification techniques to engage students. Gamification is an interesting concept that deals with the introduction and use of game design elements in a proper way to satisfy individual motivational needs. The use of gamification in educational settings is a complex task that requires, from instructional designers, knowledge about game elements (such as leaderboards and point systems), game design (e.g. how to combine game elements) and their impact on motivation and learning. Today, to the best of our knowledge, there are no approaches for the formal systematization of the instructional design knowledge about gamification and its application in CL scenarios. Thus, to address this issue, we have applied ontological engineering techniques to develop an Ontology called OntoGaCLeS. In this paper, we present the main concepts and ontological structure used to represent gamified CL scenarios. In this ontology, we formalize the representation of gamification concepts and explain how they affect motivation in the context of collaborative learning. Particularly, we will focus on the definition of player roles and gameplay strategies. Furthermore, to show the utility of our approach, we illustrate how to use our ontology to define a personalized gamification model that is used to gamify a CL scenario based on motivational needs and individual traits of learners in a group