Online learning is a powerful option for professional development in various careers, including marketing. However, massive open online courses (MOOCs) tend to face an issue of course dropouts, and this cannot only be attributed to factors like course content or value. Social interactions among students and interest-generating elements of MOOCs are equally important elements of online learning ecosystems. Therefore, this study approaches the problem from the perspective of the social exchange theory with insights into the cognitive evaluation theory to predict the effects of social interactions and gamification rewards on the process of studies. The data from an experiment and a subsequent survey of marketing course participants were used to analyze student satisfaction and dropouts through the lens of the social exchange theory and to see the effects of expected and unexpected gamification rewards. This contributes to the knowledge about factors that influence online course discontinuation, provides managerial and educational insights on dropout reduction, and specifies directions for further studies on the use of gamification elements in MOOCs.

在线学习是各种职业（包括市场营销）职业发展的强大选择。但是，大规模的在线公开课程（MOOC）往往会面临课程辍学的问题，而这不仅可以归因于课程内容或价值之类的因素。学生之间的社交互动和MOOC的产生兴趣的元素同样是在线学习生态系统的重要元素。因此，本研究从社会交换理论的角度出发，通过对认知评估理论的洞察力来解决这一问题，从而预测社会互动和游戏化奖励对学习过程的影响。来自实验和市场营销课程参与者随后调查的数据用于通过社会交流理论的角度分析学生的满意度和辍学率，并查看预期的和意料之外的游戏化奖励的效果。这有助于了解影响在线课程终止的因素，提供有关减少辍学的管理和教育见解，并为进一步研究在MOOC中使用游戏化元素提供指导。