APPROACHING ASSESSMENT IN EDUCATIONAL GAMES

Abstract

The use of games in education necessitates investigations on how to successfully transpose learning objectives and evaluation metrics into game settings, how to effectively assess player performance in the game, and also on how to overcome technical issues associated with the integration of Digital Educational Games (DEG) and Learning Management Systems (LMS). According to Bloom's taxonomy, revised by Anderson in 2001, which is used to develop learning objectives, there are six categories in the cognitive process dimension that should be considered: remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate and create. To construct DEGs that assess player's performance in connection with these categories constitute a challenge. Digital games are in essence complex artefacts, whose design and development require extensive efforts both from pedagogical and technical points of view. While methods common to an assessment content are core to many DEGs (rewards, levels, leader boards), creating game assessment mechanisms that are motivating and even disruptive from traditional evaluation methods, and yet can be integrated into formal evaluation processes is still subject to research. This paper examines the design and development of assessment mechanisms for a language learning game, with the purpose of identifying how various assessment mechanisms can be applied in game contexts. The authors also discuss technical issues associated with interconnecting games and LMSs, exploring the possibility to automatically upload assessment criteria into the game and integrate game assessment reports into the LMS. This approach targets to implement a new level of flexibility in game development processes, enabling tutors to customize the assessment mechanisms within the game.