Learning to Escape or Escaping to Have Fun: Do Educational Escape Rooms Positively Impact Students’ Performance in Business Higher Education?

Abstract

Interest in and the use of escape rooms (ERs) for educational purposes have increased recently (Taraldsen et al, 2020; Veldkamp et al, 2020). There are many benefits to using ERs in education, including improved engagement and motivation (Buchner et al, 2022; Taraldsen et al, 2020; Veldkamp et al, 2020). However, findings concerning the impact of the use of ERs on students' actual learning are mixed (Veldkamp et al, 2020). This study aims to investigate this impact by exploring a case in which a digital ER was implemented in a blended online course. This ER was designed to be used in a business course including more than 150 business undergraduate students distributed across 15 campuses. The specific learning objective of the escape room was to enhance students’ understanding of the most important concepts of the course in preparation for the midterm examination. The authors compare students’ performance across two different sections of the same course, i.e., a control section and another section in which the ER was implemented. In addition, the authors administered a survey to comprehend students’ ER perception. Results show that while students had a positive perception of the use of the digital educational ER, its usage did not affect their performance on the midterm examination.