Psychometrics and Game-Based Assessment

Abstract

This chapter discusses the psychometric considerations when an assessment context is some form of educational game. It addresses psychometric topics such as models and validity, and situates the discussion in the rather broad arena of game-based assessment (GBA). GBA is an exciting opportunity for educational measurement. The chapter examines the assessment arguments in GBA and implications for design to arrive at a position to discuss GBA psychometrics. The conceptual assessment framework (CAF) contains specifications for the objects that instantiate an assessment. The four-process architecture layer concerns the processes and messages that take place when students interact with the GBA situations, their performances are evaluated and the GBA reacts. Evidence identification is the center of the bridge from performances to inferences about students’ capabilities. The problem of evidence identification in log files is frequently tackled by combining a priori hypotheses about the relationships between observables and constructs with exploratory data analysis and data mining.