So here is the game play of a new game based learning assessment which we recently designed for a cab hailing app!
A new yellow cab, and the user play the role of a cool cab driver (well cab drivers have become really cool post introduction of app based taxi service like Uber). The game objective is simple – drop each passengers at their exact locations and you get paid in the form of virtual coins that can be redeemed for discount vouchers. But the challenge here is that the passengers will pay only if the cab driver is able to find the answers to the questions asked by them. There are more challenges as every wrong answer will reduce your fuel level and there is possibility for a break down of you cab and subsequently failure of the mission. Give them the correct answers and you get paid as well as the fuel meter rises up.
If you are wondering as to what is this all about well let me welcome you to the world of game based learning assessments. From the traditional MCQs, fill in the blanks etc, assessments have come a long way to create engagement and interactivity among the learners. More and more organisations now prefer to explore and include game based assessments in their learning.
Before we look into the game based assessments, let’s also understand what are assessments in general? We all know that assessments play an important role in measuring the success of any learning program. They help evaluate the comprehension levels of learners and determine whether the learning objectives of the training programs are met. Be it an offline or online learning, assessments are always an important part in the learning process.
What are assessments?
In education, the term assessment refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students.
(source edglossary.org)
What are game-based e-learning assessments?
Games Based assessments are games, which allow for the measurement of knowledge, skills, values, personality, motivation, and competencies of the learners. These fall into the broader category of “serious games” i.e. games designed for purposes beyond entertainment.
Why game based e-learning assessments?
1.Game based e-learning assessments have the power to influence the cognitive ability of the learners and make them actively engaged with the learning.
2.Game based e-learning assessments help in a psychometric analysis of the learners, which can be effectively used to collect more information about the learners behavior patterns etc.
3.Game based e-learning assessments can be used both for online and offline training.
4. With higher interactivity and engagement game based e-learning assessments will definitely appeal to the millennial workforce.
5.Game based assessments are fun and hence they can eliminate the tension of a traditional assessment.
These are some of the important reasons to consider game based assessments as a part of your learning strategy.
While I mentioned the reasons to consider game based assessments, let us also explore the practical examples of game based assessments .
1.Used for sales e-learning
Sales force of any organisation, is always the bunch of highly active people. They have a high adrenaline rush and you can see them always busy in their own world of calls, emails, the client meets etc.
A traditional classroom training or an assessment can make them bored as there is no or lesser interactivity and engagement.
By including game based assessments in sales training, it helps the learners to be engaged with the assessments. The learner is required to engage with the game play and solve the assessments which include challenges and tasks.
The game elements used here induces motivation and the challenges and tasks further make the assessment effective.
2.Used for both classroom and online training
Even when an organisation conducts classroom training programs, game based assessments can be really handy.
Organisations can easily develop small games and include the required questions to evaluate the learners.
The availability of game templates and software to develop games helps in quick development of game based assessments, which can be effectively loaded to the servers or LMS to be accessed by the learners.
3.Use in compliance e-learning
Compliance training- Speak this word to your employees and you may see many disappointing faces.
With the implementation of various new elearning strategies like elearning gamification, game based elearning etc. compliance training is seeing a fresh life of engagement and interactivity among the learners.
Assessments in compliance training are very important as it becomes mandatory for the employees to undertake the course and for organisations they require to assess if the learners have understood the topics. For example, Info security is a compliance training topic which every learner should undergo and it becomes important for the organisation to assess if the learners have understood the topics.
The developer can choose a game theme of a superhero who protects a big data center from a large anonymous group of hackers who had threatened to steal the data. The assessments can be designed based on the choices the superhero character makes in the game.
4.Used for on boarding
Game based assessments are actively used by organisations to recruit new employees and induct them within the organisation. With the higher employee turnover, organisations are trying hard to find the right candidates to fill up the job posts.
In the recruiting process, game based assessments induce competition, motivation among the learners.
In a recent study by Cut-e (Cut-e, 2017) it was found that 89% of HR & talent practitioners of MNCs would use games as part of their talent attraction campaign. 75% of HR and talent practitioners worldwide would use game based assessments as part of their screening strategy.
Game based assessments helps the organisation to refine the candidates easily. It helps to give more detailed and psychometric analysis of the candidates.
5. Driver for formative assessments
Formative assessments are the assessments that are conducted during the learning process. One of the important advantage of formative assessments are the ability to share the immediate feedback to the learners. With game based assessments, the learners gets the immediate feedback. The learners can understand where they went wrong and helps in taking corrective actions when necessary.
Here, the organisation can explore and include small game based assessments to measure the knowledge and skill of the learners.
So what are you waiting for? Let you next elearning module include game based assessments and experience how effective they can be from the traditional format of assessments in elearning. Try it to experience the difference!
