Escape the class! Tips for creating virtual educational escape rooms
With games, tasks and a story, a virtual escape room can make ‘dry’ subjects more engaging for students working outside their majors, writes Cecilia Teng. Here, she gives educators steps for creating their own
“For today’s session, you will be escaping the tutorial.”
This is how I opened the flipped class. The announcement continued: “A dead body has been found and foul play is suspected. You will work in groups to investigate the crime scene, determine who the murderer is and identify the murder weapon. You will encounter puzzles that require you to apply what you have learned from the lecture to progress in the game…”
In this virtual escape room, my students played detective. After a short briefing on ground rules and game navigation, they entered the virtual world. Some noted down everything that seemed like a clue, while others assumed the role of leader, delegating tasks to team members. Students helped their peers who got stuck in the game and discussed strategies for approaching the puzzles, often over lecture materials. Groups experienced eureka moments when they finally solved the puzzle(s) that they were struggling with or when they “escaped”. As excitement levels rose, the classroom became livelier during these sessions.
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As an escape room enthusiast, I have found this to be an engaging way to make the notoriously “dry” and “difficult” subject of statistics more fun for non-statistics majors from diverse faculties. I also wanted an exercise that would foster peer learning and social connectedness for a large class of 50 to 90 students who had spent a couple of years receiving university education remotely due to the pandemic. Virtual escape rooms address space and logistical constraints associated with implementation in large classes.
Having developed and implemented a well-received virtual game for an undergraduate public health research methods class, I can share a few key tips for educators keen to create similar escape rooms for their classrooms.
1. Start with the game’s learning outcomes
Often, when we first toy with the idea of an educational escape room, we find ourselves so focused on brainstorming the storyline or figuring out the tech aspects of game design that we forget its purpose. The game is meant to teach students something. Plan the educational escape room as you would a lesson – start with intended learning outcomes. An example of a learning outcome of a biostatistics game could be the ability to distinguish between dependent and independent variables, while for an analytical chemistry game, it could be the ability to interpret data obtained from chromatographic techniques. These are crucial in guiding puzzle development.
2. Decide on the game platform
When designing an escape room, you will need to choose a platform for development and play. This should be considered together with the game format. Do you want a point-and-click format? 2D? 3D? Interactive fiction or text-based? Do you have the resources to develop the game on your own or will you need external support (from, for example, a game developer)?
For those without programming experience, Genially is a free, entry-level platform for point-and-click games, including escape rooms. It is similar to Microsoft PowerPoint but has additional interactivity features. Google Sites is another entry-level alternative.
For interactive fiction or text-based games, entry-level platforms include Twine (open source with no coding experience required, although some Javascript and CSS knowledge might be helpful for additional game features) and Inform (it is also a great way to pick up the Inform language, a natural language-based syntax specific to interactive storytelling).
More advanced platforms include GameMaker, Unity and Unreal.
3. Develop the storyline and game design
While optional, incorporating an immersive storyline enhances student engagement and motivation. Role-playing games develop learner agency. Popular game genres include adventure, fantasy and mystery. Will the game proceed in a linear fashion (which tends to be less complicated to develop), an open design or a mix of both? Consider whether a single-player or multi-player mode is more suitable, in view of the learning objectives and time allocated for the game. Design frameworks such as escapED, SEGAM and the Star Model are available for systematic guidance.
4. Create the in-game activities
In-game activities are generally tasks and puzzles that are aligned with learning outcomes. The number of tasks and puzzles and the difficulty level of each activity will depend on the intended game duration. Ideally, the difficulty level of the puzzles should increase over the course of the game. Tasks could also include searching for clues (or red herrings!) in the virtual room(s). Quizzes can be created either directly in Genially itself or by using Google Forms – the latter can be embedded in the game as virtual “locks”. Other puzzle- and clue-making resources abound on the web. Authentic tasks such as analysing a realistic dataset that is embedded in the game can help learners appreciate the real-world application of knowledge through situated learning. Care should be taken to minimise extraneous cognitive load when creating abstract puzzles – if the puzzles are too unintuitive, the game may end up hindering learning, rather than enhancing it.
5. Beta-testers are the game developer’s best friends
Beta-testing should not be skipped. Invite beta-testers to play the game (and treat them to coffee afterwards) before implementing it in class. Ex-students are ideal because they have taken the course and would mirror the intended participants’ demographic most closely. Trialling the game helps with determining the optimum number of players, identifying technical issues such as bugs and ensuring that the game can be completed within the given time by 80 per cent of the class, among other benefits to improve the game-based learning experience.
Last, a post-game debrief in class is highly recommended so that students can reflect on their experience and draw connections with the learning objectives of the lesson.
Cecilia Teng is a senior lecturer in the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore.
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