# Gamifying Massive Online Courses: Effects on the Social Networks and Course Completion Rates
## 1 Introduction  
Gamification is the use of game elements in non-game contexts to promote participation and motivate action [1; 2] Framing activities as a game through game elements, such as points, badges, and leaderboards, holds as much psychological power as the full game mechanics [3]. Gamification increases users' performance of simple repetitive tasks [4], but findings of its motivational effects are contradictory [5]. Effectiveness is also in question, pointing to the necessity to align gamification with the goal of the activity and to address the psychological needs of the expected users at design time [6].  
Educators are trying to harness the potential of gamification to design motivational learning experiences. Not surprisingly, education is the most common context in which gamification is implemented and reported [7; 8; 9]. Gamification can be used in traditional learning as well as blended and online learning. A recent literature review suggests that empirical studies equally addressed both online and regular courses, although online learning is considered a more promising field to apply gamification because it usually requires stronger motivation [10]. Since it intends to promote participation, gamification is particularly promising in massive online courses such as massive open online courses(MOOCs) in which the participation of instructors is limited, and feedback depends on the contributions of learners. Social networking presents a unique opportunity to develop peer support, thereby filling this instructional void [11]. E-learning can also take advantage of personalized and adaptive methods such as testing for measuring student performance [12], which can be used to tailor content and feedback. However, the effects of gamification in the MOOC context have not been thoroughly explored yet because it is being implemented in similar ways to those in small-scale contexts [13]. Since gamification and social networking serve different but complementary purposes, approaches combining both can result in motivationally-enhanced-social-learning experiences. Gamification can increase participation, as measured by contributions within the social network, resulting in increased social interaction and communication, which, in turn, would also result in motivational gains that fuel further participation.  
Social network analysis (SNA) provides a set of measures for a social network and its participants. In their literature review, [PERSON] et al. [14] pointed out that the application of SNA to e-learning environments is at a very early stage, although the number of studies is increasing. Network measures can be used to analyze the social interactions and the structure of the network in courses and the influence that different elements have on the network [15]. If gamification motivates participation in a social networked setting, it should be reflected in the contributions and in the structure of the social network, and SNA can be used to find such effects. Measures of each individual participant represent his/her position and influence in the network. Such measures can reflect the effects of gamification in the social network, but they also provide the means to analyze learning performance in relation to the contribution, position and influence in the network. Previous studies suggested that network metrics can be used to predict user behavior and characteristics [16].  
This work sets out to study the effect of game mechanics (points, achievements, and leaderboards) in the social network of massive online courses in which the participation of facilitators is limited, and students have to take an active role in the learning platform. Since positioning in the network can also impact course completion, this study also aims to analyze the effects of gamification on course completion by building predictive models of it.