The Challenge of Assessing Learning in Open Games

Educational designers and researchers are faced with new challenges when it comes to the design of open games for learning that allow players to choose their own solution path through the game. The goal of this empirical study with 70 university students was to be able to tell at any point in the game what the player knows and whether a specific learning goal has been attained. The analysis of learning success considered two performance categories: continuous improvement and learning by failure. An in-game assessment and
an external posttest served as verification of a player’s hypothesized state of learning. Behavioral patterns extracted from game playing provided evidence of a player’s learning success or failure and were shown to have predictive accuracy.