The Future Value of Serious Games for Assessment: Where Do We Go Now?

Abstract

Game-based assessments will most likely be an increasing part of testing programs in future generations because they provide promising possibilities for more valid and reliable measurement of students’ skills as compared to the traditional methods of assessment like paper-and-pencil tests or performance-based assessments. The current status of serious games for assessment has been highlighted from several angles in the previous articles of this special issue. Here, we will synthesize the findings from the individual papers to demonstrate how to best benefit from the advantages of game-based assessment and how to address the many challenges that still remain. In the first part we will once more discuss how game-based assessments advantages can play a role in future testing, and in the second part we will address one of the most daring challenges: the psychometrics behind the game. In a short conclusion section we will discuss how research and practice should shape a future generation of game-based assessment.

Publication
In Journal of Applied Testing Technology