Authentic Assessment
Authentic assessment involves assessing learners in a way that accurately reflects how they will use the information they are learning in the real world. This involves having learners apply their knowledge to real-life problems and scenarios. Authentic assessment generally goes beyond typical tests and instead makes use of projects and simulated learning environments where students can showcase what they learned. This benefits students because it allows them to see the value of what they learned firsthand (Wilbert, 2013). An example of authentic assessment would be having students in a web development class develop a website as their final project rather than just giving them a multiple choice test on the basic concepts of web development. Another common example of authentic assessment is a portfolio review. This is something I got to experience myself while I was an undergraduate student at TCNJ. I wanted to do credit by exam for two courses I felt I had already mastered the material for. Typically, credit by exam occurs when students are able to pass the midterm and final exam for a course and then receive credit for that course. However, since I was an Interactive Multimedia major and our classes were project-based, I had to do a portfolio review instead. This involved me meeting with professors and showing them work samples that demonstrated the skills covered in the courses I was trying to get credit for. This was useful for them and for me because it allowed them to see that I could actually apply the skills covered in the courses rather than just memorizing concepts to pass a test.
Gamification
Along with authentic assessment, many learning approaches have developed in order to convey information to learners in a more meaningful way. These learning approaches include experiential learning, project-based learning, and gamification. Of the three, gamification is the one that interests me the most so it is the one that I will be discussing in depth here. Gamification involves applying elements typically associated with games to other activities, such as education. As a point of clarity, I want to stress that gamification in learning is different than playing educational games and does not involve playing games at all. Instead, elements that typically make gaming fun and engaging are stripped out of games and applied to learning activities in order to make the learning feel fun and engaging too (Goodhue, 2017).
One of the main researchers associated with gamification in learning is Raph Koster. Koster was inspired by the following quote from the Greek philosopher Plato: “the most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things” (Rigney, 2017, para. 2). What does that mean in plain English? Well, simply put, it means that children learn best when they are learning in the context of something they like and are having fun. In fact, in Koster’s mind learning and fun are one in the same. This got Koster thinking and he realized games are something that are fun and that children really like, so he set out to find a link between games and learning. This was the basis for his book, A Theory of Fun for Game Design (Rigney, 2017).
Koster brings up many interesting points in his book. One idea that he discusses is the concept of repetition. Games help us learn mechanics through repetition in order to build muscle memory. In Mario, the first thing we learn how to do is jump. We then learn that we need to jump on enemies in order to kill them. This action is repeated multiple times throughout the first level and by the end of the level it is ingrained in our heads. The same idea of repetition is evident in learning. When children are learning math, they learn that when they see a multiplication sign they need to perform multiplication. After repeating that concept for a while, the concept of multiplying whenever they see a multiplication sign becomes second nature. Another point that Koster brings up is the idea of leveling up. In games, when we complete a level or finish an objective, our score increases or we earn an achievement. This then motivates us to continue playing so that we can continue to boost our score and earn more achievements. Koster argues that we could apply this same logic to learning. If we attach achievements or collectibles to learning objectives, students will want to continue learning so that they can earn more educational achievements. One final idea from Koster’s book that I think is important is setting difficulty correctly. In general, no one wants to play a game that’s so hard that they cannot beat it. The same is true when it comes to learning. Students need to be challenged, but they should not be challenged to the point where they get frustrated and it becomes impossible for them to learn the topic at hand (Short, 2007).
There are many ways to apply gamification in practice. One is by having immediate feedback in eLearning modules. Whenever a student enters a response to an assessment, they can be given a prompt right away indicating whether or not their response was correct. If the response was incorrect the student can be provided with a hint and urged to try again. This helps motivate the student and encourages them to go back and review information they are struggling with because doing so will allow them to reattempt the assessment and boost their score. Another application of gamification is to add progress bars to eLearning modules. This allows students to track their progress and motivates them to keep going so that they can see the progress bar fill up (Goodhue, 2017). Perhaps the most popular application of gamification in learning is the idea of rewards, especially badges. A badge is an indicator that is used to show that someone has completed an accomplishment or demonstrated a skill. Badges work well because they have the same effect as collectibles or achievements in games. People go out of their way too earn achievements in games, and this same mentality applies to digital badges in education as people want to collect them in order to show off their skills. Badges are effective because they give people the recognition they crave for their accomplishments and they serve as an easy way to identify people with certain skills and verify that they have actually learned those skills (Badge Alliance, n.d.).
I want to finish my discussion of gamification with another bit of research that I find truly inspiring. Jane McGonigal’s research demonstrates that games can influence the way people think and what the impact of that can be. After suffering a concussion, McGonigal was bedridden for a long period of time and could not go near anything that triggered her symptoms. This made her feel very isolated and depressed to the point where she was having suicidal thoughts. It got to the point where she told herself that she was either going to kill herself or turn the experience into a game. Fortunately, she chose the latter. She knew from previous research that people tackle tough challenges when playing games, so she applied that concept to her own life and used it to help her heal from her concussion. She created her own game, Jane the Concussion Slayer, where her family and her friends served as her allies and helped her fight the enemies which were anything that could trigger her symptoms or hinder the healing process. She also worked to collect power ups which consisted of anything that could help her feel good, even on her worse days. This game helped her feel better mentally, and she realized that it could have the same impact on others. So, she developed her game further and renamed it to SuperBetter since the main goal of the game was for people to feel better about themselves. The game works by having people complete simple quests every day that boost certain attributes like physical resilience or social resilience. After releasing the game in a series of blog posts, it exploded and she started to hear stories from people whose lives were made better through her game (McGonigal, 2012). If you have not seen her TED Talks, I would highly recommend watching them (I embedded both of them below). She is very well-spoke and, in my opinion, her talks are captivating and intriguing. You can also learn more about SuperBetter in her book if you prefer reading.
Learning Scenario
A learning scenario that I think lends itself well to gamification is learning a new language. In fact, there is already an app that incorporates gamification into doing just that called Duolingo. I have used Duolingo before and personally found it to be very effective. The lessons for each language are divided into categories, such as basics, food, animals, etc. As you complete the activities in each category, you earn experience points (XP) that can be used to level up the category (earn a crown) and demonstrate your increased fluency. As you earn crowns, you can unlock more difficult activities within a category to further develop your proficiency in the language. Duolingo also makes use of achievements to reward people for reaching certain overall XP levels or practicing for a certain amount of days in a row (developing a streak). Moreover, the app encourages users to set daily XP goals for themselves and praises them when they reach their goal. The combination of XP, achievements, and constant feedback makes Duolingo a great tool for learning a language. I was using it to learn Italian and I found it to be very addictive. I would often be ready to put the app down and then see that I was only a few XP away from earning a crown which would cause me to keep going until I earned the crown. An example of authentic assessment I can think of when it comes to learning a language would be to place students in situations where they have to apply the language and have them reflect on how it went. For example, in a Spanish class I took in college we had to communicate with students in Spain who served as virtual pen pals. This allowed us to converse with a native speaker and demonstrate that we could apply what we were learning in class in a real-world application. We had to record our interviews and submit them to the teacher for assessment. Another form of authentic assessment would be sending students to a restaurant where the staff speaks the language that the students are learning and having the student demonstrate that they could order food using the language.
References
Badge Alliance. (n.d.). Why Badges? Retrieved December 09, 2018, from http://www.badgealliance.org/why-badges/
Goodhue, E. (2017, October 12). What Is Gamification? (And How Does It Differ From Gaming?). Retrieved December 09, 2018, from https://elearningindustry.com/what-is-gamification-differs-gaming
McGonigal, J. (2012, June). Jane McGonigal: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life [Video file]. Retrieved December 09, 2018, from https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life
Rigney, R. (2017, December 22). A Game Design Legend Revisits His Theory of Fun. Retrieved December 09, 2018, from https://www.wired.com/2013/11/theory-of-fun-revised/
Short, E. (2007, February 02). A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Retrieved December 09, 2018, from https://emshort.blog/how-to-play/writing-if/books-and-other-resources/a-theory-of-fun-for-game-design/
Wilbert, M. (2013, April 19). Authentic Assessment in Action. Retrieved December 09, 2018, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/sammamish-4-authentic-assessment-in-action-mark-wilbert
Note: The two book covers included on this page are reposted from the books’ listings on Amazon. If the author or publisher of either book has any issues with me including their book cover in my post, they can contact me and I will remove the cover immediately.