Stealth Literacy Assessments via Educational Games
Abstract
Literacy assessment is essential for effective literacy instruction and training. However, traditional paper-based literacy assessments are typically decontextualized and may cause stress and anxiety for test takers. In contrast, serious games and game environments allow for the assessment of literacy in more authentic and engaging ways, which has some potential to increase the assessment’s validity and reliability. The primary objective of this study is to examine the feasibility of a novel approach for stealthily assessing literacy skills using games in an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) designed for reading comprehension strategy training. We investigated the degree to which learners’ game performance and enjoyment predicted their scores on standardized reading tests. Amazon Mechanical Turk participants (n = 211) played three games in iSTART and self-reported their level of game enjoyment after each game. Participants also completed the Gates–MacGinitie Reading Test (GMRT), which includes vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension measures. The results indicated that participants’ performance in each game as well as the combined performance across all three games predicted their literacy skills. However, the relations between game enjoyment and literacy skills varied across games. These findings suggest the potential of leveraging serious games to assess students’ literacy skills and improve the adaptivity of game-based learning environments.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 25, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.3390/computers12070130
Entities
People
- Danielle S. McNamara
- Katerina Christhilf
- Linh Huynh
- Rod D Roscoe
- Tong Li
- Ying Fang
Organizations
- Arizona State University
- Ball State University
- Institute of Education Sciences
- Office of Naval Research