[Summary] Better Learning in Games: A Balanced Design Lens for a New Generation of Learning Games

Hello there!
I summarize the publication “Better Learning in Games: A Balanced Design Lens for a New Generation of Learning Games (2015)” in this post.

Introduction

    In this guide, the authors explained how Balanced Design, which is a design lens based on Evidence-Centered Design (ECD), can serve as a powerful tool and construct the design of a learning game. Also, they described how Balanced Design makes an impact on game designers as well as educators if this framework is fully utilized.

The importance of assessment

    In order to develop a game which promotes deeper learning and understanding of learners, instructors need to understand these three points:

1. What a game is targeting
2. How that situates into a larger learning sequence
3. How they know what learners learned from the game

Thus, for game designers, during considering a learning game, an assessment roop of these questions is crucial to provide more engaging and transformative learning game experiences. In general, assessment means creating a way to identify how you know what the learners have learned. A learning game has potential as an assessment mechanism in education because it enables us to collect various data to assess learner’s behaviors if it is designed well.

Evidence-Centered Design (ECD)

    ECD is a powerful framework to collect and analyze data from learning games. The framework focuses on measurable evidence of a student’s learning. There are five key components in ECD:

1. Domain Analysis
2. Domain Modeling
3. Developing the Conceptual Assessment Framework (CAF)
4. Assessment Implementation
5. Assessment Delivery

Balanced Design

Although ECD provides a rigorous assessment methodology, many game designers weren’t seeking such a formal role with an assessment. Thus, Balanced Design which offers a less formal but still powerful lens for designing the heart of a learning game was developed. Balanced Design is based on the Developing the Conceptual Assessment Framework(CAF) component of ECD. Specifically, Balanced Design consists of three elements to create a feedback loop for an ongoing learning experience. 

1. Content Model: What knowledge, skills, abilities are you targeting?
2. Task Model: What tasks will engage them in that context, and elicit the evidence you need?
3. Evidence Model: How do you know when someone has mastered that content?

The aim of Balanced Design is to extend current work on learning game design by providing a coherent framework that builds a better and more effective game for the learners. Also, it aims to build a better foundation to assess learning game experience based on data. 

Why Balanced Design?

    Game designers often greatly focus on the teaching and learning contents of the game paying less attention to understanding how the student is advancing in learning. But what truly important for a learning game is an alignment in the learning experience design. Balanced Design offers the framework for an assessment loop based on task and evidence data to align it. The evidence data is also important for teachers because while it is commonly believed that observing and assessing learners behavior to guide the next steps is one of the essential work for teachers, they can’t do the work with a learning game which doesn’t provide any data to evaluate student’s learning. 

Designing learning games on a coherent framework, and documenting that for the learners and instructors who will use the games makes sure to have the evidence of the alignment of their learning experience.