Educational versions of popular games, such as SimCity, have taken over schools in a "fresh wave of serious learning games that bridge the gap between instruction and assessment," reports Education Week. One game, SimCityEDU: Pollution Challege, was released last November and gives students the opportunity to act as mayors and balance the growth of their cities. 

According to the article, students benefit from this type of learning. They develop a deep understanding of real-world tactics, which allows educators to quickly identify students' strengths and weaknesses and use a different approach to evaluation. 

"If a student builds one bus stop, then waits before strategically building other bus stops, he has an eye for problem-solving that I would not have gotten with a multiple-choice or written test," says Matt Farber, a social studies teacher. Farber beta-tested SimCityEDU in his sixth-grade classroom at Valleyview Middle School in Denville, NJ. "We used to try formal assessments every day, and then do a summative assessment at the end of a unit every two weeks and pretty much move on, but you don't get a lot of reflection with that. Now, there's iteration, which I hadn't planned on. Students get competitive for their personal best."

Take a look here for more digital games used for testing and assessment in the classroom. 

Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor