Games can be powerful vehicles to support learning, but this hinges on getting the assessment part right. Over the past decade, we have designed, developed, and evaluated a number of stealth assessments in games to see: (a) if they provide valid and reliable estimates of students' developing competencies (e.g., in the areas of qualitative physics understanding, creativity, and persistence); (b) if students can actually learn anything as a function of gameplay; (c) the added value of inserting engaging learning supports (cognitive and affective) into the mix; and (d) if the games are still fun with the embedded assessments and supports. My presentation will cover the topic of stealth assessment in games to measure and support important 21st century competencies. I'll describe why it's important, what it is, and how to develop/accomplish it. I'll also provide examples and videos in the context of a game we developed called Physics Playground.

Valerie Shute is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at Florida State University. For more than four decades, she’s been involved with basic and applied research related to measurement, assessment, cognitive diagnosis, individual differences, and learning from advanced instructional systems. Her general research foci hover around the design, development, and evaluation of learning--particularly related to 21st century competencies. Over the past decade, her work has mainly focused on creating and using games with stealth assessment to support learning—of cognitive and noncognitive knowledge, skills, and dispositions (e.g., physics, problem solving, creativity, persistence). Her research has resulted in numerous grants, journal articles, books, chapters in books, as well as a patent (U.S. Patent #7,828,552: Method and System for Designing Adaptive, Diagnostic Assessments, 2010), and she has accrued over 21,000 citations and h-index = 62 according to Google Scholar. For more details on her research and publications see http://myweb.fsu.edu/vshute/.