Chapter 6: Exploring the Role of Games in Educational Assessment

This chapter describes the characteristics of games and how they can be applied to the design of innovative assessment tasks for formative and summative purposes. Examples of current educational games and game-like assessment tasks in mathematics, science, and English language learning are used to illustrate some of these concepts. We argue that the inclusion of some aspects from gaming technology may have a positive effect in the development of innovative assessment systems (e.g., by supporting the development of highly engaging assessment tasks). However, integrating game elements as part of assessment tasks is a complex process that needs to take into account not only the engaging or motivational aspects of the activity but also the quality criteria that are needed according to the type of assessment that is being developed.