Gamification of personalized learning through Massive Open Online Courses: learner-to-AI enabled chatbot

Abstract

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are considered an educational revolution that widens access to quality education and enhances social inclusion. With their fast advancement and potential influence in education, they have been enlisted in the modernization agenda of many universities globally. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of learning through MOOCs is debatable, while student retention rate ranges significantly. The primary reason is considered the lack of interactivity in MOOCs, which urges enhancement of interaction between teachers and students. Another challenge regarding the MOOCs is to find the best resource fitting a learner’s personal profile, interests, background, and learning needs. The first challenge has been addressed from the gamification point of view to measure the impact of gamification on the overall success of MOOCs. However, the second challenge still remains untouched. In online learning setting, course design and interaction with instructors as well as students are the factors that greatly influence students’ perceived learning and satisfaction with the online course. The contribution of chatbot-supported MOOCs recommender system is in two-fold. Hence, the current study aims to extend the gamification concept to chatbot-supported MOOCs recommender system with two types of chatbots, namely text and avatar + text chatbot.