In the last two decades, game-based learning environments have evolved into powerful learning tools. With the growth and evolution in complexity of these innovations, complementary work in gamebased assessment design has also begun to take shape and has generated considerable interest among a variety of education stakeholders. This is in part due to their ability to offer real-time, adaptive and integrated formative feedback. As the use of digital devices and digital learning tools continues to expand in schools, the potential for harnessing learning data becomes increasingly possible and powerful.Yet there are inherent tensions and challenges in the nature of collecting assessment data inside a game-based learning environment which confront our foundational premises of what makes for a good assessment. In this article, we explore the evolution and opportunities of the emerging field of game-based assessment, the challenges and tensions these innovations present and how we may be able to collectively advance this work to benefit everyday classrooms.K E Y W O R D S assessment, digital games, educational technology, game-based assessments, learning games
| I NTR OD U CTI ONThe role of digital games in learning and education has evolved remarkably in the last two decades. Once a genre of learning tools that had to overcome the 'games' stigma, learning games are now a common learning technology both in the classroom and at home and the depth and breadth of their formats go well beyond The Oregon Trail, 1 Math Blaster and the thousands of literacy and maths applications available for download (Richards, Stebbins, & Moellering, 2013).Many of the original learning games were criticised for their poor design and were dubbed 'edutainment' because they only attempted to leverage a behaviourist model of learning: complete the task and receive a reward. However, considerable advances have been made in learning theory and in our understanding of how we learn that have helped to transform the design of learning games into more robust, constructivist environments (Klopfer, Osterweil, & Salen, 2009). This has brought us into more modern learning theories, including constructivism, social constructivism, and constructionism, all placing the emphasis on the nature of learners constructing their understanding through their own 188 |