A multifaceted students’ performance assessment framework for motion-based game-making projects with Scratch

Abstract

In the last few years, engaging students to create digital games has been a pole of attraction for many teachers and researchers, resulting in highly positive learning experiences and promoting their thinking skills, e.g., programming and computational thinking (CT) skills. Researchers have already stated about the need for further research not only around the evaluation techniques and tools of the quality of these complex educational interventions, but mainly about ways to ease the assessment of students’ performance from multiple perspectives with authenticity. This paper contributes to proposing a multifaceted assessment framework of the degree of students’ acquisition of multiple skills, when they get involved in digital motion-based touchless game-making course-projects with the MIT Scratch tool. The results of its implementation during a pilot study with computer science undergraduate students, which are presented, highlight the positive effects of combining and extending various assessment techniques and tools to draw holistic conclusions about students’ higher skills including computational and spatial thinking skills.