EngAGe: A Link between Educational Games Developers and Educators

Abstract

Assessment is crucial to both learners, to receive feedback on their progress, and educators, to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching. Serious games (SGs) usually offer an assessment system. However, if the majority of educators agree that using an SG increases the motivation, learning and retention of their students, many of them would not trust its assessment to verify that the learning goals have been met. To do so, they would use a more conventional method, such as a paper-based test. We believe the main reasons for that are: the teacher's lack of ownership of the game and the rigidness of the SG itself as it usually cannot be changed by the teacher. In this paper, we present an assessment engine capable of overcoming these issues. The engine is used both by SG developers and teachers and acts as a link between the two. An example will be presented to illustrate its features and data from a pilot study with SG developers will be analysed. The engine is not only useful to teachers and developers regarding assessment but, due to its core design, it also offers the possibility of learning analytics.