Abstract
Computerized game-based assessment (GBA) system for screening reading difficulties may provide substantial time and cost benefits over traditional paper-and-pencil assessment while providing means also to individually adapt learning content in educational games. To study the reliability and validity of a GBA system to identify struggling readers performing below a standard deviation from mean in paper-and-pencil test either in raw scores and grade-normative scores, a large-scale study with first to fourth grade students ( N = 723) was conducted, where GBA was administrated as a group test by tablet devices. Overall, the results indicated that the GBA can be successfully used to identify students with reading difficulties with acceptable reliability. Although the reliability of the results were at a very good level overall, the identification was even better in the reading fluency than in reading accuracy and in terms of raw scores than in grade-normative scores. These findings are the first to demonstrate the promise of GBA in assessing reading skills reliably and in a cost-efficient manner in classrooms. Furthermore, the developed GBA is directly applicable to an educational game for successfully supporting reading development of learners with varying levels of reading skill.
Highlights
IntroductionIt is estimated that 5% to 15% (performing below a standard deviation < 15.8%) of school-aged children experience specific difficulties in learning to read (see, e.g., American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
It is estimated that 5% to 15% of school-aged children experience specific difficulties in learning to read
The correlational analysis of the data indicated a strong correlation between the game-based assessment (GBA) and paper-and-pencil test (PPT) measures (Appendix A), and even stronger correlation was found when composite measures were compared (Appendix B)
Summary
It is estimated that 5% to 15% (performing below a standard deviation < 15.8%) of school-aged children experience specific difficulties in learning to read (see, e.g., American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Computer-based assessment (CBA) can simplify the assessment routines in many ways and facilitate a quicker identification of students requiring extra support in learning to read (Virinkoski, Lerkkanen, Holopainen, Eklund, & Aro, 2018) This is due to the fact that CBA helps to automatize the assessment procedures; standardizes the presentation of spoken assessment material, scoring, and interpretation of the test results (see, e.g., Kingston, 2009; Wang, Jiao, Young, Brooks, & Olson, 2008); and enables the maintenance of the assessment instrument over Internet. The GBA system’s ability to detect learners with reading difficulties is the focus of the present paper
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