Educational Escape Rooms as an Active Learning Tool for Teaching Telecommunications Engineering

Abstract

Traditional education, particularly at a university level is not necessarily very engaging. Educational escape rooms are a recent game based learning approach which combines team based problem solving with a story-line and cryptic clues. In this paper, we apply the concept of educational escape rooms to the telecommunications engineering classroom by creating a series of two separate scenarios, each containing three puzzles. Our evaluation is based on survey results from telecommunication experts which suggest that this will be an engaging and challenging tool for teaching telecommunications engineering. Although educational escape rooms are rapidly being deployed in education, these are the first educational escape rooms that specifically addresses the field of telecommunications engineering.

Fostering Motivation toward Chemistry through Augmented Reality Educational Escape Activities. A Self-Determination Theory Approach

“…In an educational setting, their potential as learning activities has inevitably attracted the attention of researchers. EEAs are reported to be positively perceived among students ,,,, and have shown great value in terms of engagement, ,− motivation, ,,, and learner outcomes. ,, Reviewing educational literature that deals with chemistry-specific EEAs outlines previous examples that serve as (i) instruction to lab techniques, − (ii) evaluation of student understanding, − and (iii) complementary teaching of concepts. , Digital variants of the traditional EEA, supported by immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR), for online learning are the latest development, allowing for the scalability required for implementation in larger educational settings.…”

“…5 In an educational setting, their potential as learning activities has inevitably attracted the attention of researchers. 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 Reviewing educational literature that deals with chemistry-specific EEAs outlines previous examples that serve as (i) instruction to lab techniques, 15−18 (ii) evaluation of student understanding, 19−22 and (iii) complementary teaching of concepts.…”

Assessment Re-Think

“…An assessment should cover as many learning outcomes as possible and have clear expectations. Learning activities can even be entertaining, such as escape rooms (Ross & de Souza-Daw, 2021). We argued that few learning activities would meet industry expectations and failed to prepare students exiting with a recognized qualification adequately.…”

Assessment of Cognitive Student Engagement Using Heart Rate Data in Distance Learning during COVID-19

“…Active learning activities allow student engagement to be improved and induced [42,43]. The concept of active learning refers to activities that induce students in a thinking process about the new information and connect it with experience or knowledge [42,44].…”

“…The concept of active learning refers to activities that induce students in a thinking process about the new information and connect it with experience or knowledge [42,44]. There is a great variety of activities that can be considered as active learning, such as discussion in small groups, peer activities, individual activities that required a mental effort, interactions, study cases, problem resolution, laboratories, quizzes, and games, all of them have to guarantee that students think effectively [42][43][44][45][46]. The advantages include that students feel more secure sharing their ideas in small groups, developing critical thinking, retaining new knowledge, developing communication and leadership skills, and feeling more motivated and interested [42,[44][45][46][47].…”