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Edu-Escape rooms
Subjects: Education Studies
Contributors: Mario Grande-de-Prado , Sheila García-Martín , Víctor Abella , Roberto Baelo
Submitted by: Mario Grande-de-Prado
Definition
1. Introduction
The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) advocates the implementation of active learning education
methodologies complementary to the traditional ones to face the new socio-educational context . Active
methodologies are one of the most interesting approaches to developing cooperative learning and student
involvement in the classroom . Within this type of methodologies, everything related to games occupies
a prominent place. Game is meaningful, spontaneous and motivating . Both Piaget and Vygotsky
highlight game roles in cognitive development, as it allows the incorporation of strategies, norms and
values in personal development.
Among the advantages offered by the games, it is worth highlighting their important didactic potential,
which ranges from adapting to different learning rhythms, allowing mistakes, receiving instant feedback,
developing creativity as well as increasing the motivation and socialization of the students. As well as their
commitment and participation in tasks and the acquisition of skills . As disadvantages or difficulties,
excessive competitiveness or inadequate time management, along with other particular aspects of each
game should be taken into account .
In Education, there are three important concepts linked to the game: gamification, Game-Based Learning
(GBL) and serious games. Although they are all related, they have different characteristics.
Gamification is the most known, and it is often used to designate any activity in which playing and
education or training are related; however, this concept is not precise. Gamification consists in the use of
elements and mechanics of playing in non-playful contexts . It is often implemented with help of
online platforms such as Classcraft or Classdojo .
Serious Games are those games designed with a formative purpose rather than playful one. This term
appeared in 1970 thanks to Clark C. Abt, an American researcher. He refers to serious games as an
approach or simulation that starts from a real situation that develops as a game with an educational
intention.
Game-Based Learning (GBL) refers to complete games that are designed with playful intent and are used
in teaching . Also, within the wide range of Game-Based Learning (GBL), we can consider the
Serious Games, and also the Escape Rooms.
2. Origins
The Escape Rooms or Escape Games are playful activities that offer an immersive experience. They are
activities that are carried out in groups in a cooperative manner, in which they propose to solve enigmas or
puzzles to escape from a fictitious situation . There are variants such as breakouts, in which it is not
necessary to escape from a place but to manage to open some boxes that contain a treasure or the
answer to a mystery . The origin of these games is not clear, and there are diverse
Escape rooms are cooperative games in which players must find clues, solve puzzles and perform some
tasks within a limited time. The goal is usually to escape or leave a room, place or environment. When the
escape-rooms have a pedagogical purpose are usually called Edu-Escape rooms and can be related to
gamification and Game-Based Learning (GBL). The potential for student engagement and motivation is one
of the main advantages of Edu-escape rooms.
[1]
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[3][4] [5][6]
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[18][19] [20]
interpretations. Probably one of the most relevant antecedents is the computer game "Origin", from 2006,
which achieved a certain success in the USA and Asia. Other computer games from the 80s and 90s, such
as graphic adventures, are outstanding milestones. With these precedents, in 2007 the first real escape
room appeared in Japan, outside the virtual environment of a video game. Later, these games arrived in
the West, specifically in Eastern Europe. But there are not only precedents in the world of video games.
Other activities such as theme parks, films (from detective films based in Agatha Christie's or Sherlock
Holmes' novels to others as The Name of the Rose, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Cube, Saw, etc.),
television shows with live tests, live role-playing games (LARP), etc., have had a notable influence on their
development .
When Escape Rooms arrived to Europe, they were configured in a similar way to what we understand
today. In large part, this is due to the influence of the Flow Theory . Flow refers to the balance between
the challenges faced and the skills with which users must overcome them. Csíkszentmihályi considers
that there should be an optimal balance in which learning occurs. When a game maintains a balance
between skill and challenge it gets the flow, and therefore maintains attention and motivation .
3. Benefits
The creation of these Edu-Escape Rooms requires taking into account a series of aspects, such as type of
students, time, material, objectives, etc. . As a counterpart to the questions to be taken into account in
their preparation, Onecha, Sanz and López point out the advantages or possibility of their educational
use:
Improve problem-solving skills
Encouraging collaborative work
Learning to think
Facilitating motivation and learning by doing
Improve learning immersion
Developing the imagination
Enhancing the vision of the whole
4. Conclusions
Sierra Daza and Fernández-Sánchez underline the growing interest in Higher Education for Escape
Rooms. This may be due to the need for methodological changes in the European Higher Education Area
.
Motivation seems to be their main asset, in line with what is expected . Undoubtedly, gamification,
Game-Based Learning, Serious Games and Escape Rooms provide an attractive perspective for teaching,
especially for interventions that encourage student participation and motivation, which are fundamental
aspects of learning .
The Escape Rooms seem to have an important educational appeal for developing various skills by
solving challenges or enigmas collaboratively .
It is a growing interest although up to now we have found a small impact of prestigious journals, most of
the articles being pedagogical experiences. This may be related to the very nature of the Escape Rooms,
which are more suitable for activities of limited duration that may make it difficult to transfer them to the
scientific literature. It would be interesting to contrast how many related activities of this type are carried
out in non-university education.
To conclude, we must point out that this kind of activity reflects changes in teaching methodologies, and it
can help to observe and verify the evolution of educational processes.
[21]
[22]
[22]
[12]
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[24]
[17]
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[12][24]
[5][6]
[24]
[17]
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