Escape rooms are live-action team-based games in which players work together to discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks within a time limit to reach a specific goal. Besides being a very popular pastime for people of all ages, they have recently started to gain momentum in academic circles as educational tools. Research findings have established that educational escape games can create immersion as they combine the strengths of storytelling and gameplay, therefore eliciting high engagement and promoting successful learning.

This workshop will provide participants with hands-on, practical instructions for planning, designing, and facilitating an educational escape room. Participants will work in groups and by the end of the workshop they are expected to have created a digital educational escape room prototype.

Learning objectives

• Learn the core principals of escape rooms by playing a digital escape room
• Demonstrate an understanding of puzzles, themes, and challenges commonly used in escape rooms
• Critically analyse and identify educational purposes for using ideas based on escape rooms
• Design, implement, and playtest an educational escape room prototype