Our survey results revealed significant differences in three areas that were related to teachers’ frequency of using digital games for assessment:

Game use is related to how teachers conduct formative assessment.

Teachers who use digital games to make instructional decisions on a daily basis are more than twice as likely to check for motivation and engagement during formative assessment than teachers who rarely use games to make instructional decisions.

Game use is related to how teachers use formative assessment information.

Teachers who used digital games daily to document student progress are much more likely to use information from formative assessment on a daily basis to find or create alternative instructional strategies for a particular topic. Teachers who use digital games for formative assessment more frequently are also more likely to use that information to track student progress and give students feedback on a daily basis.

Game use is related to the barriers teachers report to conducting formative assessment.

Teachers who use digital games more frequently for formative assessment are more likely to say they do not face any barriers to conducting formative assessment and less likely to say they lack training or preparation for making use of information from formative assessment. Teachers who use digital games weekly or more often to make instructional decisions are also less likely to report that they lack time to administer formative assessment or to name a lack of materials or resources provided by their curriculum for formative assessment as barriers to formative assessment.

Teachers who use digital games in particular ways related to assessment are also less likely to report facing a range of barriers to formative assessment. For example, teachers who use assessment systems built-in to digital games more frequently to assess student learning are less likely to report lack of time as a barrier to formative assessment.