An escape room is a real life adventure game based on the popular escape-the-room or point-and-click style computer games. In this game a group of people are locked inside a room and need to resolve riddles, find clues and complete puzzles to find the key that will allow them to escape within a limited amount of time (Nicholson, 2015). The idea of using this game format in teaching and learning is now starting to develop with some schools using it to revise and assess subjects while developing a sense of team work and creative thinking in the students (Pan, et al. 2017).
In the Escape Room – Science Edition created at IT Carlow, the goal was to incentivise 5th year students to pursue college courses related to science. The room was set with a science theme and narrative. The participants were expected to have basic maths, biology and chemistry knowledge to be able to complete the game. The students were monitored at all times with a remote WiFi camera. Communication with the facilitator, who was outside the room, was done through two-way radios. The students were allowed to ask hints or confirm codes by using this method of communication. Moreover, inside the room there was a laptop that played an audio file that unveiled the location of the key to escape the room once the username and password were discovered.
More complex technology can be used to make the room more exciting such as RFID chips, Arduino and Raspberry Pi based systems controlling lasers, magnets and LCD displays.
The Escape Room – Science Edition was a success with 96% of the participants expressing that they liked or loved the event.
Using technology to create different and stimulating escape rooms can potentially lead to the student being more excited about the learning process.
Topics: Assessment and Feedback in a Digital Age , Topics: Gamification
