Developing Immersive Virtual Assessments

Continuing advances in information technology enable innovative ways for using performance-based assessments to measure science inquiry learning (Pellegrino, et al., 2001). Scientific inquiry is an active process comprised of four primary components: theorizing, questioning and hypothesizing, investigating, analyzing and synthesizing (White & Frederiksen, 1998). The literature suggests that that existing methods for assessing science inquiry learning are limited (Haertel, et al., 2006; Quellmalz & Haertel, 2004; Quellmalz, et al., 2006). The purpose of this paper is to discuss how we have used the Evidence Centered Design framework (ECD; Mislevy & Haertel, 2006; Mislevy, et al., 2003) to design Immersive Virtual Assessments (IVAs) to assess middle school scientific inquiry knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) aligned with national standards (College Board, 2009; National Research Council (NRC), 1996).