Interweaving Task Design and In-Game Measurement

There are two important design issues related to game-based learning (GBL) in school settings: (a) the intrinsic integration of content-related tasks in gameplay and (b) the real-time capture and analysis of in-game performance data. In this chapter, we describe an integrative design approach that is aimed to interweave game-based task design with in-game assessment of learning. Extending other GBL projects in which the mechanism of data mining for assessment was created after game development, in E-Rebuild we have designed the evidence-centered, data-driven assessment during the course of game design. Design-based research findings on emergent core design processes and functional conjectures on the approaches of task generation and evidence accumulation are discussed, with support of infield observations on the implementation feasibility and outcomes of various design assumptions.