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whether the tool being created would indeed work in
achieving the desired learning objectives. The outcome
depends not only on the game design but also the way
the instructor teaches the relevant concepts. “There has
to be a calibration process in the way we teach the
concepts to fit the game,” William explains, “it is part of
the change in pedagogy.”
In addition, confusion could potentially arise between
what the students are taking away from the game and
how they are expected to respond in formal assessments.
Using William’s game as an example, there are elements
in the game that are irrelevant to the key concepts of the Measuring effectiveness
topic. As he elaborates, “These elements make the game William also shared his thoughts about measuring the
less abstract and more fun, but they run the risk of effectiveness of innovative pedagogical tools using pre-
steering the students’ attention towards the wrong and post-intervention quizzes. He cautioned that such
things.” approaches may not accurately reflect the true measure
of what students are gaining from the game. “Not doing
well in the quizzes does not mean that the students did
not learn anything from the game,” William explained. “It
may help students enjoy the class more and give them
more confidence to study other topics in class, and that
will pay off in other ways; we are just not assessing those
other ways.” William also highlighted the influence of
other contextual factors. “Students have many other
classes and distractions,” he mentioned, “instructors are
competing with so many other influences, so that does
make effective evaluations tougher.” He suggested that
instructors may need to conduct several studies and test
