This paper aims to present a game-based assessment (GBA) methodology for systematically assessing graduate attributes within an accreditation-oriented framework in higher education. The study focuses on an activity that generates structured evidence to support the assessment of learning outcomes, addressing challenges of authentic evaluation in engineering programmes.
A GBA tower-construction activity was designed and implemented at three curricular stages (initial, intermediate and advanced) in a Civil Engineering programme at the University of Costa Rica. The activity combined observable performance indicators with a percentile-anchored normalisation to produce 0–100 scores for five graduate attributes. Data was collected from 28 student teams (more than 110 students) and complemented by a survey on clarity, fairness and value.
Results reveal differentiated progression: design and development; environment and sustainability; and teamwork improved significantly; problem analysis remained stable; and project administration and finances increased gradually. Students reported high clarity and adequacy of conditions, supporting feasibility and acceptability.
The GBA methodology provides a potentially adaptable framework for generating structured, performance-based evidence in exploratory programme-level quality assurance applications to support programme dashboards, thresholding and continuous improvement in outcomes-based accreditation processes.
While gamification is widely studied as a pedagogical strategy, empirical uses of GBA as an assessment mechanism are scarce and they rarely produce structured evidence for programme-level outcomes. This study reframes gamification as a programme-level assessment support mechanism, contributing a novel, context-sensitive approach that aligns authentic performance tasks with comparable, accreditation-relevant outcome indicators in higher education.
