This session will describe findings and lessons learned from a research program investigating the use of games as both learning and assessment tools. Key questions around process, such as who are the right people to have on the team and how to balance conflicting views from engagement, learning, and assessment perspectives will be discussed. In addition, research-based examples will be provided of: specification of learning progressions, task design to align with learning progression stages, identification and summarization of evidence from log files, and reporting to inform instructional decision-making.

1. Kristen DiCerbo, Ph.D.
Vice-President, Education Research
@KristenDiCerbo
July 2017
Image by Ruben Alvarado
Building
Engaging
Games for
Learning and
Assessment

2. Game-Based Assessment
2

3. 3

4. The ability to capture data from everyday
events should fundamentally change how we
think about learning and assessment.
4

5. New Ways of Thinking
5
Item Paradigm Activity Paradigm
Problem Formulation Items pose questions Activities request action
Output Items have answers Activities have features
Interpretation Items indicate correctness Activities provide attributes
Information Items provide focused information
Activities provide
multi-dimensional information

6. Some Things We’ve Figured Out
6
You need assessment experts, content experts, and game designers

7. Some Things We’ve Figured Out
7
Evidence-Centered Design works… sort of

8. Some Things We’ve Figured Out
8
The process must be iterative

9. Some Things We’ve Figured Out
9
Think About Systems

10. 5 Key Elements
10

11. Domain and Student Models
11

12. Task Model
12

13. Evidence Model – Evidence Identification and
Scoring
13

14. Evidence Model – Evidence Identification and
Scoring
14
Student Time Attempts Mean
Space
Median
Space
Min
Space

15. Evidence Model – Evidence Accumulation
15

16. Communication
16

17. Some Things We Haven’t
Figured Out
17
■ Despite promises of “hundreds of data
points,” we always end up with relatively few
in our measurement models. Why is that?
■ How do we define evidence for validity and
reliability?
■ How do we scale development?
▪ Costs
▪ Time
▪ Staff