# Evaluating Learner Engagement with Gamification in Online Courses
###### Abstract  
Several reasons underlie the low retention rates in MOOCs. These reasons can be analysed from different perspectives, either in terms of the course design or the enrolled students. On the student side, we find little social interaction, boredom, tiredness, and a lack of motivation and time. These challenges can be addressed by adaptive gamification that proposes the design of personalised, hedonic learning experiences. Studies to date have adopted either the one-fits-all approach or the adaptive approach. Nevertheless, the adaptive solutions have considered a static player profile throughout the entire experience. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a dynamic adaptive gamification approach which--based on students' interactions with game elements and also their opinions about these elements--dynamically updates the students' player profile to better figure out which game elements suit them. We evaluated the engagement of students with gamification elements by means of a course composed of a knowledge \"pill\" related to the topic of \"recycling plastics from the sea\", offered through the nanoMOOCs learning platform. We propose metrics such as the mean number of interactions with the gamification dashboard, the time spent by participants with game elements, and the opinions of students about these elements to compare the Dynamic Adaptive Gamification (DynamicAG) and the Static Adaptive (StaticAG) approaches. An experimental study with 66 high school students showed significant differences between both approaches. Specifically, the DynamicAG group spent twice as much time with the Dashboard than the StaticAG group. Moreover, students in the DynamicAG group were more engaged with game elements (mean number of interactions = 12.13) than those in the StaticAG group (mean number of interactions = 3.21). a 20231331331331313313  
usually learn in isolation [7]. Regarding the emotional dimension, recent findings show that MOOC students value content quality, user interface design, and enjoyment [8; 9]. Moreover, MOOCs have to contend with low retention rates and a high no-show rate. [PERSON] et al. [10] divided the reasons that cause the high dropout rates into two groups. On the one hand, some reasons are inherent to the instructional design of the course--duration, content, length, and types of activity--including the fact that some of the students sign up to the course out of curiosity, because it is free, or because they are interested in particular sections of it. In response to this problem, the educational community has contributed with solutions such as the design of (short) \"pills\" of knowledge containing rich and compelling interactive content, as nanoMOOCs (nanoMOOCs are a new audio-visual educational format for knowledge pills; [[https://nanomoocs.cat/](https://nanomoocs.cat/)]([https://nanomoocs.cat/](https://nanomoocs.cat/)), accessed on 12 January 2023) do. On the other hand, other causes of low retention rates can be attributed to the student, such as little social interaction, boredom, tiredness, lack of motivation and time, and that the content does not suit their skills. Thus, the design of personalised solutions, the increase of cooperative activities between the students, as well as the design of gamified experiences, are potential solutions for addressing these challenges. Adaptive gamification, i.e., the design of personalised emotional learning experiences through gamification, is the approach that this paper focuses on. Gamification is the integration of Game Elements (from now on also referred to as GE) in non-game contexts in order to increase user participation and engagement in activities [11]. In fact, research has stated that gamification had a positive impact on participation and retention in MOOCs [12]. However, integrating the game elements/mechanics in MOOCs as an effective way of enhancing student engagement remains a challenge.