Full Formative Assessment based on Educational Video Games

The attention on the use of computer games in education (educational gaming) is quickly growing. By investigating the impact of video games in school, researchers have shown a remarkable improvement in student engagement and motivation. Nevertheless, the effects of educational gaming have rarely been considered on a long running application and, most important, they have never been considered in the whole teaching process as a means for teachers to real-time monitor students' learning. In this paper, we investigate the use of video games associated with formative assessment to pursue the above objective. In particular, we have conceived and implemented a portal, named PlayLearn, aimed at administering online tests based on multiple-choice quizzes, by means of video games. By letting the students play, the portal helps students to learn, it evaluates them and, finally stores their learning parameters which can be used by the teachers to improve in real-time the learning process, all in a virtuous circle.