Abstract
Background.
The implementation of educational escape rooms has shown great value in learner outcomes. The design of such simulations requires a thoughtful, well-defined process.
Objective.
The purpose of this article is to encourage educational escape room designers to use a thoughtful, methodical, iterative process to ensure quality, educational capacity, and a positive learner experience.
Application.
When designing an educational escape room, designers should consider implementing a cyclic design process: design, pilot, evaluate, redesign, re-evaluate, and repeat.
Discussion.
A methodological process for educational escape room design can promote deep learning and positive student perceptions.
Background
The implementation of educational escape rooms in higher education has shown great value in learner outcomes, perceptions, and engagement (Adams et al., 2018; Borrego et al., 2017; Eukel et al., 2020; Eukel et al., 2017; Morrell & Ball, 2020; Morrell & Eukel, 2020). Educational escape rooms can contribute to student engagement, cooperation, and content mastery and enhance an in-person classroom format (Monaghan & Nicholson, 2017; Nicholson, S., 2015; Veldkamp et al., n.d.). As educators consider designing these serious games to meet the needs of learners, it is imperative that a thoughtful process is used to ensure value. Studies have reported on various aspects of quality assurance to encourage to implement during the design and evaluation of educational escape rooms (Caldas et al., 2019; Clarke et al., 2017; Cohen et al., 2020; Kavanaugh et al., 2020). The authors here present a design-based approach to ensuring educational escape room success.
Aims
The purpose of this article is to encourage educational escape room designers to use a thoughtful, methodical, iterative process to ensure quality, educational capacity, and a positive learner experience. The steps proposed include a cyclic design process: design, pilot, evaluate, redesign, re-evaluate, and repeat (Figure 1). Through this proposed process, the authors will outline various steps to promote deep learning and positive student perceptions.
Proposed Process for Ensuring Educational Escape Room Success
Design
Educational simulations should be designed based on a needs assessment, provide a context for the experience, be constructed based on measurable objectives, and be learner-centered (INACSL Standards Committee, 2016). These constructs should be closely considered when designing an educational escape room. Educational escape rooms can be designed using a simple game loop: overcoming a challenge, finding a solution, and obtaining a reward (i.e. escaping the room before the time limit elapses). Puzzles can be physical or cognitive with various structures: open structure, sequential, path-based, or a hybrid of these (Veldkamp et al., n.d.).
When developing escape rooms, educators should take into consideration educational objectives, available resources, and game goals. It is important that each puzzle is thoughtfully designed to meet educational and learner needs. Consider educational outcomes which include communication, teamwork, skill application, and topic content application. Systematic, flexible, and cyclic design will facilitate effectiveness (INACSL Standards Committee, 2016). Some tips for success include:
Educators ought to consider available preparation time and costs for needed materials, which is widely variable based on the involved tasks.
Strive for a high success rate through a reasonable time limit; this increases student learning experiences and allows students to gain value from the various objectives embedded in all puzzles (Veldkamp et al., n.d.).
Make thoughtful considerations prior to assigning a grade for performance, as this may increase student angst, as suggested in educational gaming literature (Cain & Piascik, 2015; López-Pernas et al., 2019).
Set the stage for the escape room with a detailed introduction, including gaming tasks, expectations, rules, and expected outcomes.
Set group/team size at a maximum of 4 to 5 students to encourage active participation from all members.
The authors suggest that the first task/puzzle is relatively easy to set the stage for success for participants (López-Pernas et al., 2019; Morrell & Ball, 2020)
Pilot
Educators should pilot escape rooms prior to implementation. Pilot participants may be a small group of students who have previously completed the course, other faculty, or practitioners in the area of interest. Piloting an educational escape room allows educators to discover human errors in game design and uncover confusion around certain tasks to ensure student success. Consider taking notes while the educator observes group participation.
Evaluate
Pilot results allow educators to correct concerns prior to implementation, clarify tasks, appropriately time the learning experience, and provide an adequate number of clues during the event. After the pilot event, educators should lead an informal debriefing with pilot participants. Consider asking pilot participants to provide input on their feelings during the event. Topics for designers to review after gathering qualitative findings from pilot participants include but are not limited to: gaming logistics, costs, educator prep time, time for completion of gaming tasks, team interactions, untoward findings/red herrings, and the consideration of gaming tasks to support educational objectives rather than distract from learning.
Redesign
After the pilot experience, the educator is encouraged to make adjustments prior to implementation with student groups. Focus on findings from the pilot implementation and capitalize on educational interventions which can help promote learning.
Additionally, it is encouraged that educators consider creation of tools to measure knowledge gains and student perceptions. This will help the educator ensure that gamification principles have increased the learning experience, rather than distracted from educational objectives.
Did learning occur beyond what it did in the classroom? Consider creation of a knowledge assessment administered prior to and after the escape room (Morrell & Eukel, 2020).
What were student perceptions? Consider administering a brief perceptions survey, like the one created by Eukel, Frenzel, and Cernusca (2017) which has been adapted and used in many escape room studies (Caldas et al., 2019; Kavanaugh et al., 2020; Morrell & Eukel, 2020).
Evaluate outcomes before and after the escape room, such as patient outcomes related to the educational topic in a clinical setting.
Ask content experts to weigh in on evaluation tools.
After the implementation with students, the educator may be pleased with results and also find tasks that were inappropriate or too difficult for students. The decision can be made as to whether the task should be revised, eliminated, or just tested again with another group. At times, the escape room needs a few runs to achieve best results.
Take notes during and after the event.
Remain flexible; when conducting a large innovation, things may not go exactly as expected.
Take pictures of each puzzle and materials to ensure set up is easily replicated.
Re-Evaluate
As the educator continues to evaluate the escape room with each iteration, he or she can consider learning outcomes, answering questions such as: Did learning occur beyond what did in the classroom setting? Course quiz or exam scores can be compared in addition to the analysis of pre/post knowledge assessment results. How did the students perceive the event? Perception scale results can be evaluated for various cohorts and can be compared over time. What other type of learning may have occurred that was not planned for? For example, students may have grown in communication or collaboration skills. Is there a manner by which the designer can incorporate evaluation of communication, leadership, engagement, and/or resilience?
Educators can lead a focus group of students to gather qualitative results from participants. Consider inviting the top and bottom performing teams to gather a wide range of discussion. For a unique assessment, faculty can ask another faculty member to sit in with a group, taking notes about their comments and team dynamics.
Summary
Following this iterative, design-based approach, the educator can then continue back to the re-design steps to continually modify the educational escape room to meet learner needs and advance quantitative and qualitative outcomes. Continually following the proposed cyclic platform will allow educators to increase student experience in educational escape rooms. A methodological process for educational escape room design can promote deep learning and positive student perceptions.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.