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Designing for Participation in Educational Video Games

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Assessment in Game-Based Learning

Abstract

Designing for Participation (DFP) is a design model for obtaining diverse learning outcomes in innovative learning environments. It fosters participation in social interaction that ensures individual understanding and overall achievement. DFP emerged from assessment-oriented design studies in several environments, including the Quest Atlantis 3D virtual environment. These refinements focused on an ecological science game called Taiga for grades 4–6. This chapter introduces the five general design principles that make up DFP, along with the more specific design principles that emerged across the Taiga refinement cycles. Specific game features are summarized, along with evidence of the impact of those features in the Taiga design studies.

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Acknowledgments

Sasha Barab directed Quest Atlantis project and was the lead developer of the Taiga world and curriculum. Special thanks to James Gee for his support of this research since 2007 via the MacArthur Foundation’s 21st Century Assessment Project. Thanks to Beth Piekarsky and Jacob Summers for helping us implement and refine Taiga and for the students in their classrooms for participating in these studies. Adam Ingram-Goble, Michael Filsecker, Steven Zuiker, Eun Ju Kwon, and Anna Arici were instrumental in the assessment design, curricular revision, implementation support, and analysis in this study and the broader program of inquiry. Anna Arici, Jo Gilbertson, Troy Sadler, and Bronwyn Stuckey contributed to the initial curricular design and continuing refinements.

This research was supported by the US National Science Foundation Grant REC-0092831 to Indiana University and the MacArthur Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, or Indiana University. For more information, contact the first author at http://dthickey@indiana.edu.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University, Eigenmann Hall 502, Bloomington, IN, 47401, USA

    Daniel T. Hickey

  2. Indiana University, Eigenmann Hall 524, Bloomington, IN, 47401, USA

    Ellen Jameson

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  1. Daniel T. Hickey
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  2. Ellen Jameson
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Correspondence to Daniel T. Hickey .

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  1. , Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften, University of Mannheim, Gebaudeteil B A5,6, Mannheim, 68131, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Dirk Ifenthaler

  2. , College of Education, University of Oklahoma, Van Vleet Oval 820, Norman, 73019, Oklahoma, USA

    Deniz Eseryel

  3. Van Fleet Oval 820, Norman, 73019, Oklahoma, USA

    Xun Ge

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Hickey, D.T., Jameson, E. (2012). Designing for Participation in Educational Video Games. In: Ifenthaler, D., Eseryel, D., Ge, X. (eds) Assessment in Game-Based Learning. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3546-4_20

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