Assessment of Students' Mastery of Construction Management and Engineering Concepts through Board Game Design

Although the use of games to help students learn is explicit in the literature, little research has been conducted on student-developed games to assess student learning. The objective of this research is to establish the use of a Game Design Module as a way to assess students' mastery of course content where students modify existing board games to teach players (i.e., their classmates) course content. Three variations of the module were implemented in three sections of CON 252: Building Methods, Materials and Equipment at Arizona State University (180 total participants). The module was assessed using a mixed-methods approach of student surveys, reflective journal entries, and rating-scale/rubric evaluation of student work. Module results were compared with a Control Activity representing a traditional assessment method. Results show that using board game design as a method for assessing student retention of concepts improved student performance and increased student satisfaction. Overall, students reported greater enjoyment of the Game Design Module than the Control Activity because it involved creativity and teamwork and allowed active demonstration of course concepts.