«Stealth Assessment of Physics Understanding in Physics Playground»
Seyedahmad RahimiUniversity of Florida, USA
Abstract
Learning games provide an avenue for assessing learning while it occurs. To do so, we need a type of assessment that is unobtrusive and ongoing and does not interrupt the flow state in a well-designed digital learning game. Creating such an assessment is complex and challenging. Stealth assessment offers a possible solution. Physics Playground is a learning game about physics that uses stealth assessment to assess students’ physics understanding in real-time both in an overall and a diagnostic level. In this talk, Dr. Rahimi will briefly discuss the idea of stealth assessment, demo Physics Playground, talk about PP’s architecture, and share the findings of a recent study that used three versions of PP (i.e., adaptive, linear, and free choice).
Bio
Seyedahmad Rahimi, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Educational Technology in the School of Teaching and Learning at the University of Florida. Dr. Rahimi’s research focuses on assessing and fostering students’ 21st-century skills (focusing on creativity) and STEM-related knowledge acquisition (focusing on physics understanding). Toward that end, Dr. Rahimi designs, develops, and evaluates immersive learning environments (e.g., educational games) equipped with stealth assessment, educational data mining, and learning analytics models. These learning environments can diagnostically assess students’ various competency levels, predict different outcomes, and act accordingly in real-time (e.g., adapt the game challenges to students’ level of competency or support students’ learning by triggering the appropriate learning supports) to enhance students’ learning.
