145 D. Ifenthaler et al. (eds.), Assessment in Game-Based Learning: Foundations,
Innovations, and Perspectives, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-3546-4_9,
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012
9.1 Introduction
Recognizing the power and potential of game-based technologies to enhance
achievement and learner-centered education, policy leaders like the National Science
Foundation (Borgman et al., 2008), the Department of Education (2010), and the
National Research Council (NRC, 2011) set a national agenda for educational
research. Such research will discover, validate, and disseminate sound methods for
design, development, and implementation of instructional games that enhance and
assess learning. The current study investigates the accuracy and sensitivity of an
assessment tool built into a videogame world: the Timed Report. This work is part
of a research program that applies cognitive science analogical reasoning theory
(e.g., Gentner, 1983; Holyoak, Gentner, & Kokinov, 2001; Kurtz, Miao, & Gentner,
2001) to design and develop instructional games that (a) enhance students’ prepara-
tion for learning targeted concepts and (b) assess growth in the learner’s mental
model through measures of gameplay behavior. We have designed and developed
the instructional game Selene: A Lunar Construction GaME and a suite of assessment
tools that includes the Timed Report. We set the game within an interstitial, online
D.D. Reese (*) • R.J. Seward • A. Harrison • L. McFarland
Center for Educational Technologies, Wheeling Jesuit University, 316 Washington Ave.,
Wheeling, WV 26003, USA
e-mail: debbie@cet.edu; rjseward@cet.edu; andrew@cet.edu; lisamc@cet.edu
B.G. Tabachnick
Department of Psychology, California State University, 18111 Nordhoff St.,
Northridge, CA 91330, USA
e-mail: btabachnick@csun.edu
B.A. Hitt
Serenity Hills Informatics LLC, 2217 Haclett Ave., Wheeling, WV 26003, USA
e-mail: ben@serenityhill.info
Chapter 9
Timed Report Measures Learning: Game-Based
Embedded Assessment
Debbie Denise Reese, Ralph J. Seward, Barbara G. Tabachnick,
Ben A. Hitt, Andrew Harrison, and Lisa Mcfarland