Types of Evaluation

Formative Evaluation

Formative evaluation is the most common evaluation associated with virtual gaming simulations. The purpose of formative evaluation is to help educators and learners gauge whether or not learners are learning, It helps learners and educators act quickly to adjust teaching and learning strategies in a timely way to better meet learners’ needs. Because the virtual gaming simulations generate a score, learners are encouraged to play the simulation often to improve their score without worrying about the impact of their score on their final grade. The score is simply used as a measuring stick for learners to gauge their own understanding of the simulation content.  Formative evaluations are typically done informally and may not be graded or, if graded, the mark does not contribute to a final grade. Formative evaluation helps educators determine if they need to revisit a concept or explain it differently.

Examples of formative evaluation activities applied to virtual simulation include:

• Learners play a virtual gaming simulation and receive a total score but the score does not contribute to their final grade
• Learners are asked to describe a key concept learned from the virtual gaming simulation in their own words
• Learners are asked to take one minute and answer: “What is helping your learning with the virtual gaming simulation process?” “What is making learning difficult?”

Summative Evaluation

The purpose of summative evaluation is to evaluate learning by comparing it to specific learning outcomes. It is considered ‘high stakes’ evaluation because it is a formal process where the learner is graded and where the result counts towards the learner’s overall grade. Virtual gaming simulations are not often used for summative evaluation purposes as their primary role is to promote learning. That said, they have the potential to be used for summative evaluation.

Examples of summative evaluation activities applied to virtual gaming simulation include:

• Learners play a virtual gaming simulation on pediatric health and their total score at the end of the simulation counts for 5% of their total grade.
• Learners play a gerontology virtual gaming simulation with a focus on decision-making in a complex clinical case as part of an OSCE (objective structured clinical exam).