OTAN News

Using An Escape Room to Engage Learners

Image External Link Icon opens in new window or tab by Clockedindk External Link Icon opens in new window or tab from Pixabay External Link Icon opens in new window or tab

One of the latest fun and entertaining pastimes for people of all ages is the escape room, a live‐action team‐based game where players cooperatively discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to progress and accomplish a specific goal in a limited amount of time. Teachers have embraced the escape room phenomenon and brought it to the classroom to engage learners in all subjects and at all grade levels.

A recent article by Nate Ridgway, How to Create Your First Escape Room External Link Icon opens in new window or tab, discusses how to get started with a very simple escape room. The overall goal is to engage students with the content while encouraging critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, communication. In addition to an introductory video, Nate also provides some resources that he uses when building escape rooms and links to other sites with additional materials to explore.

Escape rooms and breakout rooms were also a hot topic at the ISTE Conference that OTAN staff recently attended. Here are some links to sessions that discussed using escape rooms at your classroom:

• Breakout!: Design Your Own Digital Escape Room External Link Icon opens in new window or tab
  Digital escape rooms make learning meaningful and engaging for multiple contents. Explore how to use free tools to create digital escape rooms. You will be well on your way to having a completed digital escape room for classroom use.

• Using #EdTech to Transform your Class into an Escape Room External Link Icon opens in new window or tab
  Do you have a topic or a lesson that you want to make come alive, but you just don't know how to make it happen? Try Game-Based Learning! Create a personalized learning experience where students collaborate to solve content-based puzzles to open lock-boxes and escape.

• Making a Digital Breakout External Link Icon opens in new window or tab
  Learn to make a digital breakout and discover a variety of examples of already created breakouts.

• Creating Educational Breakout Games for FREE Using Google External Link Icon opens in new window or tab
  In this session, participants will learn how to utilize several Google tools - including Google Sites, Google Docs, Google Forms, and Google Slides - to create an instructional online escape room that won’t cost a penny.

• Student-Created Digital Breakouts External Link Icon opens in new window or tab
  Have students show their understanding by having them create digital breakouts. Explore the tools that help students create dynamic digital breakouts.

Looking for an exciting way to engage learners and teach the content they need to know? Consider experimenting with escape rooms and “unlock” student potential!

Article: How to Create Your First Escape Room External Link Icon opens in new window or tab from CUE