Title: Game-based assessment: an integrated model for capturing evidence of learning in play

Authors: Richard Halverson; V. Elizabeth Owen

Addresses: Games+Learning+Society Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1401 University Ave., Madison, WI 5371, USA ' Games+Learning+Society Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1401 University Ave., Madison, WI 5371, USA

Abstract: This paper presents the assessment data aggregator for game environments (ADAGE), a click-stream data framework designed to test whether click-stream data can provide reliable evidence of learning. As digitally-based games become increasingly prevalent in both formal and informal learning environments, robust research and assessment vehicles within well-designed games become vital. A central challenge with this video games research in education is to demonstrate evidence of player learning. Rather than ignore the motivating and information-rich features of games in capturing learning, assessment designers need to attend to the ways in which game-play itself can provide a powerful new form of assessment. This requires learning researchers to think of games as both intervention and assessment; and to develop methods for using the internal structures of games as paths for evidence generation to document learning. ADAGE consists of two main layers: 1) the semantic template that determines which click-stream data events could be indicators of learning; 2) the learning telemetry that captures data for analysis. This study highlights how ADAGE was implemented in science game to provide a wealth of in-game player data indicative of both gameplay and learning progress to reveal important relationships between kinds of success, failure and learning in the game.

Keywords: game-based assessment; embedded assessment; digital media; game-based learning; educational games; evidence centred design; educational data mining; ADAGE; technology-based assessment; learning analytics; data aggregation; click-stream data; video games; player learning; semantics; learning telemetry; science games.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLT.2014.064489

International Journal of Learning Technology, 2014 Vol.9 No.2, pp.111 - 138

Published online: 13 Sep 2014 *

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