Game-Based Assessment

Advantages of GBA

The educational assessment community has recognized the needs for new kinds of assessment that (a) are based on modern theories of learning, (b) provide authentic real-world problems, (c) require application of multiple competencies, and (d) provide teachers and students with actionable information. Games, particularly video games, can be used as a vehicle for such assessments. Game and assessment design share similar principles of learning and employ compatible design processes. That is, game design focuses on creating mechanics that can continuously monitor and quantify players’ interactions with the game and provide feedback to the players or summarize their performance in relation to other players’ skills or resources. Similarly, educational assessment is the activity of observing what students say, do, or make, and of quantifying these observations in a meaningful way, to make more general inferences about their skills and knowledge.

Video games have great affordances for educational assessment for several reasons. First, playing video games is an integral part of daily life for many children and teens. A nationwide survey in 2015 found that 8- to 18-year-olds on average spend around 80 minutes each day playing video games, including games played on console and handheld video game players, computer games, and mobile games. Second, large amounts of data generated from gameplay can be rapidly collected without interrupting the learners’ engagement in video games, which means assessment can be seamlessly embedded in their daily activity. Third, this ability to extract data can yield rich, comprehensive student models, which can be used to diagnose students’ learning needs, provide formative feedback, and change gameplay to maximize learning according to the player’s ability level. Fourth, GBA employs challenging problems involving the types of complex situations necessary to evaluate the application of 21st-century competencies that are often underemphasized in conventional school education. Finally, when people are engaged and motivated with a given task, more accurate inferences can be made about them.

...