Assessment through Achievement Systems: A Framework for Educational Game Design

Educational Assessment Through Games

There is a large body of research dedicated to educational assessment, some of which has been applied to play, games, and other forms of interactive learning. For our purposes, we are most concerned with authentic assessment, or the direct examination of students' performance on worthy intellectual tasks (Wiggins, 1990). The difference between authentic learning experiences, such as an education-focused visit by elementary school children to a zoo or aquarium, and more traditional classroom experiences such as lectures, quizzes, and tests, is of great important for experience-focused educational games. Games as a medium have excellent potential for presenting authentic learning experiences, which are traditionally more difficult to assess. This being said, computer or digital games also present great potential for assessment of these authentic learning experiences, primarily because every nuance of a player’s experience can be measured and recorded, due to the digital nature of the experience. Our challenge as game designers is to find the most elegant and efficient solution to this problem through the structure and design of a given educational game.