N.

Williams
Methodology
EDRS 8000

Methodology Design
Setting and Participants
This study will be conducted with the students within my 8th grade Advanced
Content/Gifted English Language Arts classroom. Though these students present a small
portion of my suburban Atlanta, Georgia middle school, they will serve as a valid basis to begin
such a study. Should any differences be observed in the manner in which they perform
depending upon the type of assessment they take. Furthermore, as this group of students tend
to test well, as is evidenced by their placement within an Advanced Content class as a result of
the Georgia Department of Educations Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT), further
studies with students who are not already meeting or surpassing grade-level standards may
affect the results of this study further.

Design
The students will participate in a total of four short assessments on four differing topics
where they are able to participate in either a paper-based version of the assessment or the
game-based assessment. The students will be divided into two distinct groups: one group that
takes the paper assessment and the other group that will participate in the game-based
assessment. The students within each group will be of an equal amount of males and females

and much care will be given to ensure that the average CRCT scores of these students within
English Language Arts and Reading within each group will be roughly the same (within 5
points). These groups will alternate taking either the paper or the game-based assessment to
see if the students are indeed doing better or worse within the type of assessment presented.
Beyond this, the students will be shuffled up into two more different groups for the third and
fourth assessments so that the groups they are in do not influence the results of which
assessment is more effective.

Data Collection
As mentioned in the research design section, the students will take part in four short
assessments and be separated into two groups which will change between the second and third
assessments. The shuffling of these student groupings is intended to eliminate any unforeseen
variables beyond the type of assessments being delivered in and of themselves. For the paperbased assessments, the students responses will be hand-scored. For the game-based
assessments, the students will be provided with school-owned iPads or iPad minis in order to
participate in an assessment delivered via Kahoot. This online assessment tool will provide
instant results and standings based upon which students respond correctly the quickest. The
results are automatically aggregated into an Excel spreadsheet-compatible .CSV file which will
be downloaded at the end of the admission of the assessment. These results will then be
compared to that of the students in the paper assessment group to see if the assessment
method has an affect on the students success or failure on that assessment. Furthermore, both

assessment types will feature the same exact questions with the same answer options and
wording so that that does not stand as a possible variable that could affect the final results.