I did feel a little disheartened after giving up on my last MOOC. I became a statistic, I dropped out. Though I feel like it was far less of a conscious decision to drop out, and more of a gradual lack of time in which to watch the video lectures and complete the online content.

I’m back! A couple of weeks ago I started a MOOC on Gamification. I actually started whilst I was away, so the initial time commitment to get through the first few modules increased the barrier to entry slightly. I got through it. We are now in week 7, which marks the halfway point. I am keeping up… just. There are quizzes most weeks, expect for those weeks that have a written piece of work due. Thus far I have completed 4 quizzes and one written piece, with the next written assignment due in five days.

Overall the experience has been pleasant. The peer assessment for the first written piece went well, with only one technical difficulty. I feel like I’m much more engaged this MOOC around. I find the content more engaging and the opportunity to see some of the other students work through peer assessment was interesting.

We have covered a number of topics:

• Intro to Gamification
• Games (and why they are important)
• Game thinking
• Game elements
• Psychology and Motivation
• Gamification Design Framework

With topics such as design choices, enterprise gamification and behaviour change still on the menu I’m very much keen to see this one through. I am slightly disappointed that they haven’t taken the opportunity to practice what they preach, by gamifying the course. A badge or leaderboard here and there may not be a bad thing. Though I have a feeling that the restriction may be less about their desires to , and more about the system limitations of the Coursera platform.