Addressing Test Anxiety Using Game-Based Assessment

Abstract

This paper identifies an opportunity to integrate gamification in undergraduate biomedical engineering (BME) classrooms to alleviate student test anxiety and promote student perception of their academic performance. Gamification is a popular educational strategy that does not appear to be widely explored or adopted in higher education, particularly in a BME setting. This study proposes methods for the development, implementation, and evaluation of academic games and provides concrete practices and detailed instruction in which games can be used as an alternative to a traditional exam to support student mental health. The reflection provides the feedback received from students which demonstrates a balanced view of using game-based activities for tests and evaluations, cautiously optimistic based on the initial positive attitude seen from students.

Gamifying Assessments in Medical Education: A Novel Approach to Tackling Test Anxiety in Medical Students

“…Similar to the results of Year 1, a group-wise comparison of each category of students in Year 2 revealed that mean anxiety scores after assessments with gamification were similar to the mean anxiety scores after assessments without gamification. This is in contrast to several studies stating that gamification decreases test anxiety 15 . A previous study established the association of gamification with an increase in motivation and a subsequent decrease in test anxiety 5 .…”

“…But now that I study I feel more competent. 'In agreement with the existing data, the healthy competition generated by the leaderboard was also viewed as a source of motivation by the students 15 . 'So that I could maintain my rank and yeah that was something that was good and Yes, indeed it was a healthy competition.'…”