Save Odysseus: An Escape Room as a Content Gamification Activity for Enhancing Collaboration and Resilience in the School Context

Abstract

This paper describes the design and the implementation of an educational escape room with an Odyssey theme, in accordance with the content gamification model. Escape rooms are part of the gamification strategies adopted in education, so that students get actively engaged and at the same time achieve cognitive or pedagogical goals effortlessly. The specific escape room was developed as a playful alternative to the standard revision stage of the Odyssey, but also included interdisciplinary elements (Geography and Mathematics). The research methodology was exploratory, as a minimum foundation for further research, and quantitative. Escape room's main goal was to fight students' boredom and engage them in an entertaining learning process. The main research question was: do the vulnerable students (with low school performance) profit from this procedure and cultivate a positive attitude towards learning? According to the results, the escape room enhanced engagement, collaboration, communication, and creativity, and mitigated stress through collaboration, which subsequently fosters resilience in the school context. It was also welcomed as beneficial pedagogical activity and caused, to an overwhelming extent, the enthusiasm of the participants. The (male) gender and the earlier experience of an escape room contributed to the more positive reception of the activity. Low-performance students expressed their satisfaction and fervent approval of the experience and outscored those of high performance in almost all variables measured, proving the pedagogical value of the escape room's use. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijhss.12.2.1