Exploring Gamification Elements to Enhance User Motivation in a Cyber Security Learning Platform Through Focus Group Interviews

A rising demand for cyber security specialists, along with a wide selection of self-paced learning platforms available online, creates the ideal setting for pursuing a career in cyber security. A significant number of popular training platforms have implemented gamification theories to motivate and engage their users. The various approaches and strategies of implementing gamification elements in the most notable platforms, provide an interesting insight in relation to the effect of different procedures. The focus of this paper is to explore the impact of novel gamification elements discovered through design workshops involving participants with beginner or intermediate experience in the field. The workshops yielded interesting and unexpected new ideas with a high potential of eliciting a user response of higher motivation and retention.