Escapp: A Web Platform for Conducting Educational Escape Rooms
Open accessAbstract
Educational escape rooms are emerging as a new type of learning activity with the potential to enhance students' learning through highly engaging experiences. However, conducting educational escape rooms effectively is very complex and there are no software tools available for this purpose. This lack of support is hindering the widespread use and adoption of these activities. This article presents Escapp, a web platform that allows teachers to conduct effective and highly engaging educational escape rooms. The platform has been used for conducting three different educational escape rooms (one face-to-face and two remotely) in three higher education settings. Three case studies were conducted to empirically evaluate the usefulness of Escapp for conducting these activities, which involved more than 400 students. On the one hand, a questionnaire was administered to students to gather their opinions on the Escapp platform, obtaining very positive results in terms of overall usefulness, usability and engagement. On the other hand, data automatically recorded by Escapp during the three educational escape rooms are presented as evidence of the high number of student interactions that take place during activities of this kind and the need of using a software system for conducting them in an effective way. The results of this article show that Escapp is a well-suited solution for conducting effective face-to-face and remote educational escape rooms.
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Educational escape activities (EEAs) are reported to be positively perceived among students.
“EEAs are reported to be positively perceived among students 6,9,11,13,14 and have shown great value in terms of engagement, 6,11 -14 motivation, 6,7,12,14 and learner outcomes. 7,8,10”
From Fostering Motivation toward Chemistry through Augmented Reality Educational Escape Activities. A Self-Determination Theory Approach (2022) · cites this paper as [11]
Educational escape activities (EEAs) have shown great value in terms of engagement, motivation, and learner outcomes.
“EEAs are reported to be positively perceived among students 6,9,11,13,14 and have shown great value in terms of engagement, 6,11 -14 motivation, 6,7,12,14 and learner outcomes. 7,8,10”
From Fostering Motivation toward Chemistry through Augmented Reality Educational Escape Activities. A Self-Determination Theory Approach (2022) · cites this paper as [11]
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“These systems allow students to answer electronically displayed multiple choice questions using a remote control device [49] (which can be physical or digital).”
BackgroundStudents’ perception of Kahoot!’s influence on teaching and learning
Licorish, S. A., Owen, H. E., Daniel, B., & George, J. L. (2018) · Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning · doi:10.1186/s41039-018-0078-8 · Cited by 521 · see citing works
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“potential to positively impact learning outcomes [48].”
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Elford, D., Lancaster, S. J., & Jones, G. A. (2022) · Journal of Chemical Education · doi:10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00428 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lopez-Pernas, S., Gordillo, A., Barra, E., & Quemada, J.
- Affiliations
- Departamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas Telemáticos, ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ES)
- Venue
- IEEE Access
- Published
- 2021
- Volume
- 9
- Pages
- 38062-38077
- ISSN
- 2169-3536 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3133963609
- Cited by
- 51
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 10
- FWCI
- 10.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- IEEE Access (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Hispana (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Archivo Digital UPM (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) through the educational innovation projects (IE1819.0905, IE1920.6105)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Online Learning and Analytics
- Social Sciences › Education › Innovative Teaching Methodologies in Social Sciences
- Keywords
- educational escape rooms, web platform, game-based learning, student engagement, distance education, higher education, student interaction, usability, learning analytics
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