JATT Special Issue Focuses on Serious Games in Assessment

ATP's Journal of Applied Testing Technology (JATT) rounded out the 2017 publishing year with a special issue focusing on game-based assessment. The issue is lead off through an introduction co-authored by Pamela M. Kato of Coventry University Serious Games Institute, Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing, in Coventry, United Kingdom and Sebastiaan de Klerk of e:Xplain in Amersfoort, Netherlands: Serious Games for Assessment: Welcome to the Jungle.

In their introduction, the authors wrote: "Serious games, [which are defined as digital game-based learning, applied games, simulations] are increasingly being explored for use as assessment tools in broad domains. Drawing from research in these domains, we present important advantages and challenges that arise when using games for assessment...Our focus in this special issue of JATT is on various issues that arise when using serious games for assessment..."

The issue is comprised of three articles, in addition to the Introduction: Building the Evidentiary Argument in Game-Based Assessment by Kristen E. DiCerbo of Pearson; Why Video Games can be a Good Fit for Formative Assessment by Malcolm Bauer, Caroline Wylie, Tanner Jackson and Bob Mislevy of ETS;  Erin Hoffman-John of Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center; Michael John of University of California, Santa Cruz and Seth Corrigan of LRNG and University of California Berkley; And, The Future Value of Serious Games for Assessment: Where do We Go Now? by de Klerk and Kato.

in their summation, the authors concluded that, "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 authors also acknowledged JATT co-editors Reid Klion and Cor Slujter "for their substantive feedback and support," in putting the special issue together. [To read the full issue, visit JATTjournal.com]