=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2712/paper11
|storemode=property
|title=Escape boxes: bringing escape room experience into the classroom (extended abstract)
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2712/paper11.pdf
|volume=Vol-2712
|authors=Alice Veldkamp,Joke Daemen,Stijn Teekens,Stefan Koelewijn,Marie-Christine P.J. Knippels,Wouter R. van Joolingen
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ectel/VeldkampDTKKJ19
}}
==Escape boxes: bringing escape room experience into the classroom (extended abstract)==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2712/paper11.pdf
Escape boxes: bringing escape room experience into the
classroom
Alice Veldkamp1 [0000-0002-0738-8955], Joke Daemen1, Stijn Teekens2 and Stefan Koele-
wijn3
Marie-Christine P.J. Knippels1 [0000-0003-4989-1863], and Wouter R. van Joolingen1 [0000-
0002-4271-2861]
,
1
Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC, Utrecht, The
Netherlands
2
University Twente, Drienerlolaan 5, Enschede, The Netherlands
3
Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Hospitaaldreef 5, 1315 RC Almere,
The Netherlands
a.veldkamp@uu.nl
Keywords: escape rooms, game-based learning, problem-based learning, col-
laborative learning, student engagement, hybrid learning spaces, science educa-
tion.
Extended abstract
Escape rooms have been finding their way into education worldwide (Breakout
EDU, 2018; Sanchez & Plumettaz-Sieber, 2018). Escape rooms are live-action team-
based games in which players encounter challenges in order to complete a quest in a
limited amount of time. The quests in the first-generation games were ‘escapes’ from
a room. Nowadays, the quests vary, players may solve a murder mystery or break into
a vault (Nicolson, 2015).
Parallel to their immense popularity in the entertainment industry, escape rooms
are gaining popularity as teaching and learning environments. It is remarkable that the
design of the educational escape rooms started bottom-up with enthusiastic teachers
who have shared their materials on platforms, such as, Breakout EDU (Breakout
Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Com-
mons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
68
EDU, 2018; Sanchez & Plumettaz-Sieber, 2018). Their aim is to create escape rooms
to explore an active learning environment which is said to increase pupils’ motivation
and/or engagement and fosters learning while using or developing team work and
communication skills (e.g. Borrego, Fernández, Blanes, & Robles, 2017; Cain, 2019;
Hermanns et al., 2017).
Apart from its educational potential, the escape room concept has the potential to
create hybrid learning spaces (Trentin, 2016); emerging, amongst others, individual
and collaborative learning as well as physical and digital spaces (Köppe, Nørgård, &
Pedersen, 2017; Stommel, 2012; Zhang, 2008).
Acknowledging its educational potential, teachers have formulated limitations and
boundary conditions for escape rooms in education on aspects of pupils’ learning,
teachers’ guiding skills, and usability in classrooms, such as short set-up and reset-
times in between classes (e.g. Cain, 2019; Hermanns et al., 2017; Veldkamp et al.,
2019, submitted).
In this design-based research, we explored the implementation of escape rooms in
education. Hereby, the leading research question was: how can the escape room con-
cept be adapted to education, taking into account limitations of educational settings
and boundary conditions set by teachers?
The paper describes the process leading to the design criteria, the design process.
The resulting technology-enhanced escape boxes have become hybrid learning spac-
es, merging individual and collaborative learning, as well as physical and digital
spaces, as seen in figure 1. The design of the box with assignments on each side,
wants to set students face to face to each other and require them to collaborate in the
physical world instead of being individually absorbed in a digital world.
The preliminary results with the technology-enhanced escape boxes are promising.
The boxes meet the design criteria set. The exterior and content of boxes can be re-
used and adapted by the teacher. The box with content-based puzzles, makes it more
feasible to set up, reset, and clear away an escape room in a limited time. Puzzles can
be developed in a way that learners recognize the knowledge and skills needed to
solve the content-based puzzles. The hybrid learning spaces in the form of technolo-
gy-enhanced escape boxes, succeed in putting learners in direct physical contact with
each other, stimulating them to collaborate in a physical world due to shape of the
boxes, and the organization and design of the puzzles. The puzzles required combin-
ing information uncovered by different subgroups. The immersion into the game con-
text was enhanced by the digitally driven narrative. Learners can be confronted and
immersed in real world situations, such as socio-scientific issues, e.g. deadly zoonoses
or plastic soup. Structuring of the game through the digitally unfolding of the puzzles
and pre-set hints diminished help from the teacher. However, developing adequate
pre-set hints appears to be complex and it did not rule out the need for help.
The paper discusses the playtest results, the role of the design criteria in the design
process, the escape box as a hybrid learning space and recommendations for design-
ing educational escape rooms.
69
Figure 1a. Design of the final box, with top ‘open’ to show inner structure. Figure 1b.
Box ready for play and 4c. after play.
References
Borrego, C., Fernández, C., Blanes, I., & Robles, S. (2017). Room escape at class:
Escape games activities to facilitate the motivation and learning in computer sci-
ence. JOTSE, 7(2), 162-171.
Breakout EDU. (2018, June). http://www.breakoutedu.com/
Cain, J. (2019). Exploratory implementation of a blended format escape room in a
large enrollment pharmacy management class. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and
Learning, 11(1), 44–50.
Hermanns, M., Deal, B., Campbell, A. M., Hillhouse, S., Opella, J. B., Faigle, C.,
& Campbell, R. H., IV. (2017). Using an “escape room” toolbox approach to enhance
pharmacology education. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 8(4), 89.
Köppe, C., Nørgård, R. T., & Pedersen, A. Y. (2017). Towards a pattern language
for hybrid education. Proceedings of the VikingPLoP 2017 Conference on Pattern
Languages of Program (pp. 1-17). ACM.
Nicholson, S. (2015). Peeking behind the locked door: A survey of escape room fa-
cilities. Retrieved on 14 2, 2017, from http://scottnicholson.com/pubs/erfacwhite.pdf.
Sanchez, E., & Plumettaz-Sieber, M. (2018, December). Teaching and Learning
with Escape Games from Debriefing to Institutionalization of Knowledge.
In International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance (pp. 242-253). Spring-
er, Cham.
Stommel, J.: (2012). Hybridity, pt. 2: What is Hybrid Pedagogy? Hybrid Pedago-
gy. Available online at https://hybridpedagogy.org/hybridity-pt-2-what-is-hybrid-
pedagogy/
Trentin, G. (2016). Always on Education Inside Hybrid Learning Spaces. Educa-
tional Technology, 56(2), 31–37.
Veldkamp, A., Knippels, M.C.P.J., & van Joolingen, W.R. (2019). Escape rooms
in secondary science education: teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the educational
potential. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Wiemker, M., Elumir, E., & Clare, A. (2015). Escape room games: “Can you trans-
form an unpleasant situation into a pleasant one?” In J. Haag, J. Weißenböck, M.W.
70
Gruber, M. Christian, & F. Freisleben-Teutscher (Eds.), Game based learning, (pp.
55–68). St. Pölten: Austria: Fachhochschule st Pölten GmbH.
Zhang, J.P. (2008). Hybrid Learning and Ubiquitous Learning. In J. Fong, R.
Kwan, F.L. Wang (Eds), Hybrid Learning and Education. ICHL 2008. LNCS, vol.
5169. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.