Integrating Assessment, Feedback, and Learning Analytics in Educational Games

Assessment is a crucial aspect of any teaching and learning process. New tools such as educational games offer promising advantages: they can personalize feedback to students and save educators time by automating the assessment process. However, while many teachers agree that educational games increase motivation, learning, and retention, few are ready to fully trust them as an assessment tool. A likely reason behind this lack of trust is that educational games are distributed as black boxes, unmodifiable by educators and not providing enough insight about the gameplay. This chapter presents three systematic literature reviews looking into the integration of assessment, feedback, and learning analytics in educational games. It then proposes a framework and present a fully developed engine. The engine is used by both developers and educators. Designed to separate game and assessment, it allows teachers to modify the assessment after distribution and visualize gameplay data via a learning analytics dashboard.

Implementation Plans for Course Redesigns: An Exploration of Identified Strategies

Institutions are redesigning gateway courses—lower-division courses known to create student success bottlenecks—to influence persistence and completion goals. These initiatives, student success course redesigns (SSCR), are specialized versions of course design institutes (CDIs). This investigation into SSCRs uses content analysis to examine the implementation plans created during a SSCR. Results demonstrated that the majority of the strategies planned focused on the Learning key performance indicator (KPI), and the minority of the planned-for strategies focused on the Monitoring Student Performance KPI. A more granular analysis of the Learning strategies revealed five themes: Content, Assessment, Pedagogy, Syllabus, and Student Success. Additional results indicated the majority of planned strategies would occur out of class, and disciplinary differences between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM faculty for pedagogical and content design changes. Results also demonstrated a need for more faculty to utilize actionable language for course redesign strategies. Moreover, the implementation plans provided useful assessment feedback of the CDI itself.

Novel use of a sequential standardized oral board exam to assess PGY1 resident progression

Purpose A standardized oral board exam was created to longitudinally assess postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) pharmacy residents in key domains. Summary We provide a descriptive review of a novel oral board exam administered quarterly to our PGY1 pharmacy residents. Preceptors from our core rotations (internal medicine/infectious diseases, adult critical care, oncology, pediatrics, and administration/health policy and outcomes) developed questions based on situations commonly encountered by PGY1 residents to assess residents’ communication; the content of their response, assessment, and plan; and coachability. Over the 4-year history of this assessment, scoring has matured to consider whether a resident has or has not met or has exceeded expectations for a PGY1 resident at a given stage in their training. Our comprehensive feedback and action planning approach included residents’ self-assessment, feedback from the exam committee, development and implementation of a customized training plan for execution, and dissemination to our preceptors. Systematically assessing our PGY1 residents with this innovative method provided a process for tracking their performance and served as a baseline for those who completed additional training at our institution. Conclusion A standardized quarterly oral board exam was developed to identify residents’ strengths and areas for improvement at established periods during the PGY1 residency training program. This standardized assessment, paired with individualized action plans and open communication with key stakeholders, stimulated development in residents’ performance, communication, and interpersonal skills. We aim to expand this system’s application to identify predictors of success for candidates we interview for our postgraduate training programs.

The Influence of Feedback in Different Way of Learning and the Relationship with Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition: Issues in Assessment

This paper has three components. They are feedback, the way of learning, and vocabulary acquisition. This research was based on the learning situation that teachers and students have to conduct online learning because of the pandemic Covid 19. This paper elaborates the three components mentioned before. In the process of assessment, feedback is the important part. When students learning at school, teachers will give feedback directly. The way of giving feedback in language learning will influence students’ vocabulary acquisition. But, in different way of learning, teachers cannot give feedback directly as in the classroom. This situation gives different influence in students’ vocabulary acquisition. Then teachers do the alternative assessment in the process of online learning. Keywords: Feedback, Vocabulary Acquisition, Assessment

Formative assessment as one of the ways to support the child in the learning process

The aim of this article is to show formative assessment as one of the ways to support first graders in guiding their learning process, an important element of which is self-regulation. It is the core around which the skills of first graders are built up. It becomes possible by directing their actions in speech and practice. Particular attention was paid to one of the elements of the formative assessment: feedback, appearing during the dialogue between the teacher and the student. I refer to John Hattie’s model (2015), describing four levels of feedback: task, process, self-regulation and “me”, and the main questions functioning at each of these levels. Levels and questions allow us to notice that feedback is not related to grading, but is information current in action, helping students to make progress on the basis of data reducing the gap between where they are and where they should be. It is important because if the student receives it on an ongoing basis, then he/she is best able to perform his/her tasks and activities. Self-regulation is the basis of education in the school class, which should be a space for its shaping. This approach of self-regulation allows us to see the first grader as an active, innovative and curious person. This requires a shift from summative grading to equipping students with a variety of self-regulated learning strategies.

Evaluation of a Mobile Web Application for Assessment Feedback

This paper reports an evaluation of a mobile web application, “MyFeedBack”, that can deliver both feedback and marks on assignments to students from their lecturer. It enables them to use any device anywhere, any time to check on, and receive their feedback. It keeps the feedback private to the individual student. It enables and successfully fosters dialogue about the feedback between the students and the educator. Feedback and marks were already being delivered using the institution’s learning environment/management system “Moodle”. The study used a sequential explanatory mixed-method approach. Two hundred thirty-nine (239) participants were reported on their experiences of receiving feedback and divided among several groups: (a) feedback delivered in “Moodle”, (b) formative feedback in “MyFeedBack”, and (c) summative feedback in “MyFeedBack”. Overall, results showed a statistically significant more positive attitude towards “MyFeedBack” than “Moodle”, with the summative assessment subgroup being more positive than the formative subgroup. There was an unprecedented increase in communication and feedback dialogue between the lecturer and the students. Qualitative results enriched and complemented the findings. The paper provides guidelines for an enabling technology for assessment feedback. These offer insight into the extent to which any of the new apps and functionalities that have become available since this study might likely be favourably viewed by learners and help achieve the desired pedagogical outcomes. These include: (1) accessible using any device, making feedback accessible anywhere, anytime; (2) display feedback first (before the grade/mark); (3) enable personalisation of group feedback by the teacher; (4) provide privacy for each student; (5) facilitate dialogue and communication about the feedback; and (6) include a monitoring feature. Three goals already put forward in the literature—(1) making the feedback feel more personal, (2) getting a quicker turnround by making it easier for the teachers to achieve this, and (3) prompting more dialogue between the educators and students—are advanced by this study which shows how they can be supported by software, and that when they are achieved then users strongly approve them.

Can Relational Feed-Forward Enhance Students’ Cognitive and Affective Responses to Assessment?

Assessment feedback should be an integral part of learning in higher education, but students can find this process emotionally and cognitively challenging. Instructors need to consider how to manage students’ responses to feedback so that students feel capable of improving their work and maintaining their wellbeing. In this paper, we examine the role of instructor-student relational feed-forward, enacted as a dialogue relating to ongoing assessment, in dissipating student anxiety, enabling productive learning attitudes and behaviours, and supporting wellbeing. We undertook qualitative data collection within two undergraduate teaching units that were adopting a relational feed-forward intervention over the 2019–2020 academic year. Student responses were elicited via small group, semi-structured interviews and personal reflective diaries, and were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. The results demonstrate that relational feed-forward promotes many elements of student feedback literacy, such as appreciating the purpose and value of feedback, judging work against a rubric, exercising volition and agency to act, and managing affect. Students were keen for instructors to help them manage their emotions related to assessment, believing this would promote their wellbeing. We conclude by exploring academic strategies and pedagogies that position relational instructor feed-forward as an act of care, and we summarize the key characteristics of emotionally resonant relational feed-forward meetings.

Fitness Assessment Feedback May Lower Intrinsic Motivation for Physical Activity among College Students

Fitness assessments are commonly used as a motivational tool in exercise classes and fitness training. However, there is little research on their actual effect. This study explored how the feedback from a fitness assessment may affect intrinsic motivation for physical activity in college students. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design where 430 college students were assigned to either an intervention or one of two control groups. The fitness assessment was only distributed to the subjects in the intervention group. Students were surveyed at four-time points to examine subjects’ competence, autonomy and intrinsic motivation. A repeated measures general linear model measured differences between those who did and did not receive the fitness assessment. Intrinsic motivation (F(6,848)=2.33 p=.031) and competence (F(6, 848)=3.81, p=.001) diminished significantly in the group receiving fitness assessment feedback as compared to either control group. Additionally, for those in the intervention group that perceived their feedback as negative there was a significant decrease in competence (F(1,155)=15.59, p<.001), intrinsic motivation (F(1, 155)=6.41, p=.012), and physical activity (F(1,155)=7.46, p=.007). Fitness assessment feedback may hinder intrinsic motivation toward physical activity at least among those dissatisfied with the feedback.