CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 43Educational Games and GamificationTeaching and Learning ProgrammingEducational Robotics and Engineering

Comparing Face-to-Face and Remote Educational Escape Rooms for Learning Programming

Open access
Lopez-Pernas, Sonsoles, Gordillo, Aldo, Barra, Enrique, Quemada, Juan·2021·IEEE Access
DOI 10.1109/access.2021.3073601
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Existing literature has provided strong evidence that educational escape rooms are engaging and effective learning activities when they are properly conducted in the classroom. However, no prior research has determined whether the positive effects of these novel educational activities on students’ perceptions and learning persist when conducted remotely. This article performs, for the first time, a comparative study of the effectiveness of face-to-face and remote educational escape rooms. For this purpose, two versions of the same educational escape room were conducted: one in-class and one remotely. Both experiences were evaluated by means of three different instruments: (1) a pre-test and a post-test for measuring learning gains, (2) a questionnaire for assessing students’ perceptions, and (3) a web platform for recording student interaction data during the activities. The results obtained suggest that, although remote educational escape rooms for learning programming can be as engaging as their face-to-face counterparts, their learning effectiveness is somewhat lower.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1109/access.2021.3073601

Cites

1 of 1 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • 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 [6]

    The Introduction (p. 1) reports positive effects of educational escape rooms on engagement and learning, and Learning Effectiveness (p. 8) finds significant knowledge gains in both rooms studied. Students’ Perceptions (p. 9) also describes the activities as highly engaging. The paper does not establish a motivation benefit in its own study; Related Work (p. 3) mentions motivation only when describing another study’s comparison of face-to-face and remote rooms. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • 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 [6]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 43

  1. [1][1] A. V. Lama, ''Millennial leisure and tourism: The rise of escape rooms,'' Cuadernos de Turismo , vol. 41, pp. 743 746, 2018. -
  2. [5][5] S. J. Clarke, D. J. Peel, S. Arnab, L. Morini, H. Keegan, and O. Wood, ''EscapED: A framework for creating educational escape rooms and interactive games to for higher/further education,'' Int. J. Serious Games , vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 73 86, Sep. 2017. -
  3. [6][6] C. JimØnez, R. Lafuente, M. Ortiz, L. Bruton, and V. MillÆn, ''Room escape: Propuesta de Gami caci n en el grado de sioterapia,'' in Proc. Actas del 3rd Congr. Nac. Innovaci n Educ. y Docencia en Red . Valencia, Spain: Universitat PolitŁcnica ValŁncia, 2017, pp. 537 551. -
  4. [7][7] C. Borrego, C. FernÆndez, I. Blanes, and S. Robles, ''Room escape at class: Escape games activities to facilitate the motivation and learning in computer science,'' J. Technol. Sci. Educ. , vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 162 171, 2017. -
  5. [8][8] S. R. Monaghan and S. Nicholson, ''Bringing escape room concepts to pathophysiology case studies,'' HAPS Educator , vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 49 65, Aug. 2017. -
  6. [9][9] H. N. Eukel, J. E. Frenzel, and D. Cernusca, ''Educational gaming for pharmacy students design and evaluation of a diabetes-themed escape room,'' Amer. J. Pharmaceutical Educ. , vol. 81, no. 7, p. 6265, Sep. 2017. -
  7. [10][10] A. I. V. V r s and Z. SÆrk zi, ''Physics escape room as an educational tool,'' in Proc. AIP Conf. , vol. 1916, 2017, Art. no. 050002. -
  8. [11][11] P. Fotaris and T. Mastoras, ''Escape rooms for learning: A systematic review,'' in Proc. 13th Eur. Conf. Games Based Learn. (ECGBL) , L. Elbaek, G. Majgaard, A. Valente, and S. Khalid, Eds. Reading, U.K.: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, 2019, pp. 235 243. -
  9. [12][12] M. Hermanns, B. Deal, A. M. Campbell, S. Hillhouse, J. B. Opella, C. Faigle, and R. H. Campbell, ''Using an 'escape room' toolbox approach to enhance pharmacology education,'' J. Nurs. Educ. Pract. , vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 89 95, 2018. -
  10. [13][13] V. Adams, S. Burger, K. Crawford, and R. Setter, ''Can you escape? Creating an escape room to facilitate active learning,'' J. Nurses Prof. Develop. , vol. 34, no. 2, pp. E1 E5, 2018. -
  11. [14][14] J. L. G mez-Urquiza, J. G mez-Salgado, L. Albend n-Garc a, M. Correa-Rodr guez, E. GonzÆlez-JimØnez, and G. A. C.-D. L. Fuente, ''The impact on nursing students' opinions and motivation of using a 'nursing escape room' as a teaching game: A descriptive study,'' Nurse Educ. Today , vol. 72, pp. 73 76, Jan. 2019. -
  12. [15][15] M. Boysen-Osborn, S. Paradise, and J. Suchard, ''The toxiscape hunt: Anescape room-scavenger hunt for toxicology education,'' J. Educ. Teach. Emerg. Med. , vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 9 19, 2018. -
  13. [16][16] J. Cain, ''Exploratory implementation of a blended format escape room in a large enrollment pharmacy management class,'' Currents Pharmacy Teaching Learn. , vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 44 50, Jan. 2019. -
  14. [17][17] N. Brown, W. Darby, and H. Coronel, ''An escape room as a simulation teaching strategy,'' Clin. Simul. Nursing , vol. 30, pp. 1 6, May 2019. -
  15. [18][18] A. E. Kinio, L. Dufresne, T. Brandys, and P. Jetty, ''Break out of the classroom: The use of escape rooms as an alternative teaching strategy in surgical education,'' J. Surgical Educ. , vol. 76, no. 1, pp. 134 139, Jan. 2019. -
  16. [19][19] J. Guckian, A. Sridhar, and S. J. Meggitt, ''Exploring the perspectives of dermatology undergraduates with an escape room game,'' Clin. Exp. Dermatol. , vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 153 158, Mar. 2020. -
  17. [20][20] N. Dietrich, ''Escape classroom: The Leblanc process An educational 'escape game,''' J. Chem. Educ. , vol. 95, no. 6, pp. 996 999, Jun. 2018. -
  18. [21][21] M. Ferreiro-GonzÆlez, A. Amores-Arrocha, E. Espada-Bellido, M. J. Aliano-Gonzalez, M. VÆzquez-Espinosa, G. F. Barbero, A. V. GonzÆlez-de Peredo, P. Sancho-GalÆn, J. A. `lvarez-Saura, and C. Cejudo-Bastante, ''Escape classroom: Can you solve a crime using the analytical process?'' J. Chem. Educ. , vol. 96, no. 2, pp. 267 273, 2019. -
  19. [22][22] K. Jambhekar, R. P. Pahls, and L. A. Deloney, ''Bene ts of an escape room as a novel educational activity for radiology residents,'' Academic Radiol. , vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 276 283, Feb. 2020. -
  20. [23][23] A. Clauson, L. Hahn, T. Frame, A. Hagan, L. A. Bynum, M. E. Thompson, and K. Kiningham, ''An innovative escape room activity to assess student readiness for advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs),'' Currents Pharmacy Teach. Learn. , vol. 11, no. 7, pp. 723 728, Jul. 2019. -
  21. [24][24] L. M. Caldas, H. N. Eukel, A. T. Matulewicz, E. V. FernÆndez, and K. L. Donohoe, ''Applying educational gaming success to a nonsterile compounding escape room,'' Currents Pharmacy Teaching Learn. , vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 1049 1054, Oct. 2019. -
  22. [25][25] S. Cotner, K. M. Smith, L. Simpson, D. S. Burgess, and J. Cain, ''1311. incorporating an 'escape room' game design in infectious diseases instruction,'' Open Forum Infectious Diseases , vol. 5, no. 1, p. S401, 2018. -
  23. [26][26] J. W. J. Ang, Y . N. A. Ng, and R. S. Liew, ''Physical and digital educational escape room for teaching chemical bonding,'' J. Chem. Educ. , vol. 97, no. 9, pp. 2849 2856, Sep. 2020. -
  24. [27][27] D. D. L. Flor, J. A. Calles, J. J. Espada, and R. Rodr guez, ''Application of escape lab-room to heat transfer evaluation for chemical engineers,'' Educ. Chem. Eng. , vol. 33, pp. 9 16, Oct. 2020. -
  25. [28][28] S. C. Brady and E. C. Andersen, ''An escape-room inspired game for genetics review,'' J. Biol. Educ. , pp. 1 12, Dec. 2019. -
  26. [29][29] S. Mystakidis, E. Cachafeiro, and I. Hatzilygeroudis, ''Enter the serious E-scape room: A cost-effective serious game model for deep and meaningful E-learning,'' in Proc. 10th Int. Conf. Inf., Intell., Syst. Appl. (IISA) , Jul. 2019, pp. 1 6. -
  27. [30][30] S.-Y. Huang, Y.-H. Kuo, and H.-C. Chen, ''Applying digital escape rooms infused with science teaching in elementary school: Learning performance, learning motivation, and problem-solving ability,'' Thinking Skills Creativity , vol. 37, Sep. 2020, Art. no. 100681. -
  28. [31][31] M. Monnot, S. Laborie, G. HØbrard, and N. Dietrich, ''New approaches to adapt escape game activities to large audience in chemical engineering: Numeric supports and students' participation,'' Educ. Chem. Eng. , vol. 32, pp. 50 58, Jul. 2020. -
  29. [32][32] S. Lopez-Pernas, A. Gordillo, E. Barra, and J. Quemada, ''Examining the use of an educational escape room for teaching programming in a higher education setting,'' IEEE Access , vol. 7, pp. 31723 31737, 2019. -
  30. [33][33] S. Lopez-Pernas, A. Gordillo, E. Barra, and J. Quemada, ''Analyzing learning effectiveness and students' perceptions of an educational escape room in a programming course in higher education,'' IEEE Access , vol. 7, pp. 184221 184234, 2019. -
  31. [34][34] A. Gordillo, D. Lopez-Fernandez, S. Lopez-Pernas, and J. Quemada, ''Evaluating an educational escape room conducted remotely for teaching software engineering,'' IEEE Access , vol. 8, pp. 225032 225051, 2020. -
  32. [35][35] C. JimØnez, N. Ar s, `. A. M. Ruiz, and L. Orcos, ''Digital escape room, using Genial.Ly and a breakout to learn algebra at secondary education level in Spain,'' Educ. Sci. , vol. 10, no. 10, p. 271, Oct. 2020. -
  33. [36][36] A. Fuentes-Cabrera, M. E. Parra-GonzÆlez, J. L pez-Belmonte, and A. Segura-Robles, ''Learning mathematics with emerging methodologies The escape room as a case study,'' Mathematics , vol. 8, no. 9, p. 1586, Sep. 2020. -
  34. [40][40] J. L. Plass, B. D. Homer, and C. K. Kinzer, ''Foundations of game-based learning,'' Educ. Psychologist , vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 258 283, Oct. 2015. -
  35. [41][41] M. Prensky, ''Fun, play and games: What makes games engaging,'' in Digital Game-Based Learning . New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill, 2001, pp. 1 31. -
  36. [42][42] M. J. Vergne, J. D. Smith, and R. S. Bowen, ''Escape the (remote) classroom: An online escape room for remote learning,'' J. Chem. Educ. , vol. 97, no. 9, pp. 2845 2848, Sep. 2020. -
  37. [43][43] H. Eukel, J. Frenzel, K. Frazier, and M. Miller, ''Unlocking student engagement: Creation, adaptation, and application of an educational escape room across three pharmacy campuses,'' Simul. Gaming , vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 167 179, Apr. 2020. -
  38. [44][44] A. M. Ho, ''Unlocking ideas: Using escape room puzzles in a cryptography classroom,'' Primus , vol. 28, no. 9, pp. 835 847, Oct. 2018. -
  39. [45][45] L. Williams and R. L. Upchurch, ''In support of student pairprogramming,'' ACM SIGCSE Bull. , vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 327 331, Mar. 2001. -
  40. [46][46] C. McDowell, L. Werner, H. Bullock, and J. Fernald, ''The effects of pairprogramming on performance in an introductory programming course,'' in Proc. 33rd SIGCSE Tech. Symp. Comput. Sci. Educ. , vol. 34, 2002, pp. 38 42. -
  41. [47][47] S. Lopez-Pernas, A. Gordillo, E. Barra, and J. Quemada, ''Escapp: A Web platform for conducting educational escape rooms,'' IEEE Access , vol. 9, pp. 38062 38077, 2021. -
  42. [48][48] J. Cohen, ''A power primer,'' Psychol. Bull. , vol. 112, no. 1, pp. 155 159, 1992. -
  43. [49][49] J. Romano, J. D. Kromrey, J. Coraggio, and J. Skowronek, ''Appropriate statistics for ordinal level data: Should we really be using t-test and Cohen'sd for evaluating group differences on the NSSE and other surveys?'' in Proc. Annu. Meet. Florida Assoc. Institutional Res. , 2006, pp. 1 3. <!-- image --> SONSOLES L PEZ-PERNAS (Graduate Student Member, IEEE) received the bachelor's and master's degrees in telecommunications engineering from the Universidad PolitØcnica de Madrid (UPM), in 2016 and 2018, respectively, where she is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in telematics engineering. Since 2015, she has been working as a Researcher with the Department of Telematics Engineering, UPM, participating in different projects, such as FIWARE and eid4U. Her research interests include technology enhanced learning and real-time analytics, with a focus on authoring tools, educational data mining, and educational escape rooms. <!-- image --> IEEEAccess" <!-- image --> ALDO GORDILLO received the degree in telecommunications engineering and the Ph.D. degree in telematics engineering from the Universidad PolitØcnica de Madrid (UPM), in 2012 and 2017, respectively. From 2012 to 2017, he was a Research and a Development Engineer with the Telematics Engineering Department, UPM. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Computer Science Department, UPM. His research interests include technology-enhanced learning, with a special focus on creation, evaluation, and dissemination of e-learning resources, computer science education, game-based learning, and e-learning systems. <!-- image --> ENRIQUE BARRA received the Ph.D. degree in telematics engineering with a minor in multimedia and technology enhanced learning from the Universidad PolitØcnica de Madrid (UPM). He has participated in many European projects, such as GLOBAL, FIWARE, and C@R. He is currently involved in several projects contributing to the generation and distribution of educational content in TEL environments. His research interests include videoconferencing, games in education, and social networks in education. <!-- image --> JUAN QUEMADA (Life Member, IEEE) is currently a Full Professor with the Telematics Engineering Department, Universidad PolitØcnica de Madrid (UPM). He is also the Head of the Internet NGUPMResearch Group, the Telefonica Chair of UPM for next generation Internet, and the UPM Representative at the World Wide Web Consortium. He has authored a large variety of publications. His research interests include collaborative and social application architecture for the Internet and the Web, including cloud computing, where he has a strong involvement in European and Spanish research.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Lopez-Pernas, S., Gordillo, A., Barra, E., & Quemada, J.
Affiliations
  • Departamento de Ingenier&#x00ED;a de Sistemas Telem&#x00E1;ticos, ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Polit&#x00E9;cnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ES)
ORCID
Venue
IEEE Access
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Published
2021
Volume
9
Pages
59270-59285
ISSN
2169-3536 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1109/access.2021.3073601
OpenAlex
W3153733014
Cited by
43
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 3
FWCI
9.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • IEEE Access (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Archivo Digital UPM (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Hispana (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Educational Robotics and Engineering
Keywords
educational escape rooms, distance education, face-to-face learning, programming education, learning gains, student engagement, student perceptions, student interaction data, gamified learning

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review