One method that is gaining momentum is “stealth assessment”. Of course, we are not talking about a ninja’s assessment, but what is stealth assessment actually?
With this term, we usually refer to an innovative assessment for students that measures and supports learning in video games. According to the Professor of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at Florida State University, Valerie Shute, stealth assessment is “seamlessly woven into the fabric of the learning and gaming environment so that it’s virtually invisible… reducing thus test anxiety while not sacrificing validity and consistency.”
Why use stealth assessment?
More and more teachers have brought stealth assessment into play. This is happening because it can collect dynamic evidence of learning in real-time, at various grain sizes and in a more interactive way than other assessments.
More specific, the advantages of game-based assessments are:
- Student’s engagement
Exciting games can attract students and motivate them to attend classrooms. Wanting to become the best “player” and to get the highest reward, students are more likely to learn more about the subject.
- Instant Feedback
Most games allows to students to see their results instantaneous. Thus, they can see where they stand among other peers. This feedback can push them to try again and harder to reach a higher placement.
- Unique experience
Offers a unique experience to every user and as a result it makes the students have more enthusiasm during the assessment. This alternative way of assessment can be more attractive to students that have been assessed by the dominant multiple-choice assessment.
- Reduction of students’ anxiety
Every student is anxious when it comes the time for the assessment. But what would happen if the assessment’s process was a game? When its about to play a game the level of students’ anxiety is reduced because it’s something familiar to them.
- Students’ productivity
The creation of gamified systems with rewards can make students more excited and competitive in the learning process. Even at subjects that most of students are struggling with, you can see their development.
- Social connection
Gamified classrooms require the collaboration of the peers. So, it could be a great opportunity to students who have trouble with social interaction!
There is one thing that may affect stealth assessment in a negative way. Teachers must know exactly what they want to assess from each game. It is not always clear how game results tie into your course assessment. Thus, good game research is necessary. This is because they have to find a game that will fulfill exactly their needs, to get the ideal results.
Can this type of assessment be part of the HR industry ?
How can we use the stealth assessment as a recruitment tool? How can we compose a student assessment with the candidate selection?
To start with, both students and candidates need something innovative that will make the rating method friendlier to them. Focusing on the recruitment process, we can see that, we have all been interviewed by the same traditional methods of recruitment.
But it’s time for something new to come and this is the game-based assessment.
Let’s see how the forenamed pros of stealth assessment are adjusted in the recruitment process.
- Unique experience
Through game-based assessments recruiters can offer a funnier and more accessible manner of assessing the aptitudes and personality traits of candidates. The design of these games is based on psychometric measures that are built to define ‘how’ candidates are making choices and not just ‘what’ they choose. Thus, it is more difficult for the test-takers to pretend a ‘better person’, as they could do in a traditional personality questionnaire.
- Candidates’ engagement
Furthermore, high-quality graphics and interesting themes make more engaged candidates with the assessment. The experience becomes more immersive for the test-takers, hence bringing out their natural responses towards situations.
- Reduction of candidates’ anxiety
Gamification will make your candidates become more immersed in the game and forget that they are completing an assessment. So, they will be less stressed and you will get more authentic data about their performance.
- Simultaneously evaluation of candidates’ skills
One player applies to various competencies to succeed in the game. Thus is easier for the recruiters to test more soft skills at the same time. For example if the test-taker is facing a trouble in the story of the game and he has to solve it, the recruiter will know exactly how he did it, if he had any help, how much risk he was willing to take and even if he had any same past experiences.
- Increase validation of assessment
Includes new performance assessments that are valid, reliable and automated in terms of scoring. Therefore, candidates are more likely to give natural responses to game-based assessments and make this process trustworthy.
- Appeal to millennial generation
Having the latest technology tools and offering something more special than other companies, you lead your business to the top. For this reason, you need people that want something more than just a job, something that will thrive them and will give meaning to their actions.So, offering them a new way of talent acquisition will promptly attract them.
Here, the only challenges with game-based assessment as a recruitment tool is that it should offer a fair play for everyone and it will contain communication with the candidates. More specifically, everyone should be able to play the game, even if he has no previous experience in gaming, ensuring the validity of the results. It is also important to be able to help the test-taker at any time of the game and give them instant feedback, so they will understand every rule of the game and will gain a good experience.
As we can see, stealth assessment is a very proactive way to support learning and strengthen the students engagement with school. But it can also break the lines and enhance recruitment process by making talent acquisition managers diagnose accurately and efficiently the level of candidate competencies during the course of playing and by making the most interactive and unique interview for the candidates.
Make the difference and choose an innovative way of recruitment, the game-based assessment! You can give a try to our game, to live the assessments experience!