Design of game-based stealth assessment and learning support

Abstract

In this chapter, we describe the processes of designing and validating game-based learning assessment and/or support in two different games—Portal 2 (by Valve Corporation) and Earthquake Rebuild. The games represent cases of possible game-based learning (i.e., domain-generic and domain-specific) and provide good vehicles for testing the design decisions underlying stealth assessment and learning support. The chapter starts with a critical review of prior research on game-based assessment of competencies and learning support mechanisms in games, and then focuses on the particular design processes and findings from our two game cases. The review and findings suggested that process-oriented data mining and learning analytics methods help to capture the complex and open-ended learning trajectories in a game setting. They also illustrated how the evidence-centered assessment design and the learning context/task design should and can be interwoven in the early phase of game development. We conclude with a discussion relevant to developing and integrating the assessment and support of learning into other learning-game platforms.