MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) continue to break into university contexts in significant ways. Mostly, these courses are offered as training and learning of universal access, promoting new challenges in teaching and in their pedagogical approaches. Despite the benefits of MOOCs in Higher Education (e.g. free and ubiquitous access to education), these types of courses are frequently criticized for their content-centric teaching model. In this way, the application of active pedagogies is presented as a possible strategy to try to change that model and encourage student participation and improve dropout rates. Thus, this paper studies the possible benefits of gamification and collaboration to encourage and motivate student participation in MOOCs. For this, we have opted for a research methodology focused on design called Design-Based Research (DBR) with the intention of showing the evidence of pedagogical innovations that have been carried out in the designs of three MOOCs carried out by the University of Valladolid (Spain). The results obtained in this process show the potential of these collaboration and gamification techniques in MOOC considering during the design and / or redesign some important aspects to obtain the desired benefits. /// MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have significantly disrupted Higher Education. Usually, these online courses offer universal access to learning, generating new challenges regarding the form they are taught and the pedagogical approaches used. In fact, despite the benefits of MOOCs in Higher Education (e.g. ubiquitous and free access to learning), these courses are frequently critized due to their content-based teaching models. Therefore, the application of strategies promoting active learning is presented as a potential technique to change these models and to improve the student participation and dropout rates. This paper reflects on the potential benefits of gamification and collaboration to enhance and motivate student involvement in MOOCs. To this end, a Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology has been applied aiming to show evidence of these pedagogical innovations in three MOOCs carried out by the University of Valladolid (Spain). The outcomes of this process show the potential benefits of gamification and collaboration in MOOCs when taking into account some concrete aspects during the design and/or co-design of the courses.