2022
Conference Paper
Adaptability and Procedural Content Generation for Educational Escape Rooms
Authors
D. Sousa 
, A. Coelho , M. Torres , Ana Rita Garcia, Tiago Rossini
We present a literature review that aims to understand the role of the Educational Escape Room (EER) in improving the teaching, learning, and assessment processes through an EER design framework. The main subject is to identify the recent interventions in this field in the last five years. Our study focuses on understanding how it is possible to create an EER available to all students, namely visually challenged users. As a result of the implementation of new learning strategies that promote autonomous learning, a concern arose in adapting educational activities to each student’s individual needs. To study the adaptability of each EER, we found the EER design framework essential to increase the student experience by promoting the consolidation of knowledge through narrative and level design. The results of our study show evidence of progress in students’ performance while playing an EER, revealing that students’ learning can be effective. Research on Procedural Content Generation (PCG) highlighted how important it is to implement adaptability in future studies of EERs. However, we found some limitations regarding the process of evaluating learning through the EERs, showing how important it is to study and implement learning analytics in future studies in this field.
keywords: learning, educational escape room, narrative, level design, adaptability, procedural content generation.
ABOUT THIS PAPER
Appears in: Vol. 16 No. 1 (2022): Proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Games Based Learning (browse) Pages: 766-773 Publication year: 2022 ISBN: ISSN: doi: https://doi.org/10.34190/ecgbl.16.1.618 Conference name: 16th European Conference on Games Based Learning Dates: 6-8 October, 2022 Location: Lisbon, Portugal Citation download: Other publications by the authors:
Conference Paper
EDUCATIONAL ESCAPE ROOMS ACTIVITIES TO FACILITATE LEARNING STRATEGIES AND IMPROVE TEACHING, LEARNING, AND ASSESSMENT PROCESSES
D. Sousa , A. Coelho , M. Torres
Playful Learning won a prominent place in the different levels of education, and the Educational Escape Room (EER) is one of the many playful approaches to enhance student motivation. Furthermore, we argue that EERs activities facilitate learning strategies and improve teaching-learning and assessment processes.
In an Escape Room, players must solve puzzles and tasks in a limited amount of time to find the key to escape. Usually, team size is between 4 and 8 players, and most games have a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 12 players. Student groups solve contextualized problems, depending on the learning objectives and skills to improve, against the clock that usually lasts sixty minutes. According to some studies, students learn from their peers while solving challenges and viewing course materials differently. In addition, the EER rules are less competitive, and activities are more cooperative and playful. So, the challenges, the clues, and immediate feedback are characteristics that encourage students’ participation, motivation, and understanding of learned concepts. The development of EER is complex and time-consuming, but once it is complete, it can be applied to other students in the following years. There are many experiences with EER reporting that teachers supervise students and are present throughout the activity, although some involve students alone in a locked room. In addition, video surveillance was used to monitor activity, and walkie-talkies could be used for communication between students. This article presents a literature review of the last five years about EERs activities, focusing on studies, references, and tools for creating EER, providing educators, researchers, and other stakeholders information to be able to include EER in teaching-learning and assessment processes.
keywords: educational escape room, breakout, learning activity, playful learning.
ABOUT THIS PAPER
Appears in: EDULEARN22 Proceedings (browse) Pages: 2534-2539 Publication year: 2022 ISBN: 978-84-09-42484-9 ISSN: 2340-1117 doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2022.0656 Conference name: 14th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies Dates: 4-6 July, 2022 Location: Palma, Spain Citation download: (BibTeX) (ris) (plaintext) Other publications by the authors: (search)
2021
Conference Paper
NINJA TURTLES RACE: A REACTION TIME TEST TO STUDY AND ASSESS THE FOCUS OF ATTENTION, MOTOR, AND COGNITIVE SKILLS IN CHILDREN’S LEARNING PROCESSES
D. Sousa1, A. Coelho2, G. Bernardes2, N. Correia3
2Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto / INESC TEC (PORTUGAL)
3Departamento de Informática, NOVA LINCS / Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (PORTUGAL)
In this paper, we adopt design methods from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to propose enhanced measurements for Reaction Time (RT). To this end, we developed a RT system as a turtles racing game, which, ultimately, aims to foster Serious Games methodologies to study and assess the focus of attention (FOA), motor and cognitive skills in the children’s learning processes (LP).
We conducted a literature review of RT methods, which support the need for the development of a system exploring accurate measurements of RT from button clicks behavior. The modular system architecture features: (1) a physical computing interface, including light and sonic actuators, mounted on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ board; (2) a turtles racing game using physics programming in Python — whose media components, including the graphic and sound design, have been adapted to children with 3 to 5 years of age; (3) a method to accurately compute RT values and descriptive statistics over time.
From an early stage, the system design has been defined to comply with usability heuristics from HCI. The light and sonic actuators have shown to be attractive to children by captivating them on the game’s long-term playing while struggling to retain the focus from those with attention deficit. However, we faced challenging limitations on the electronic components at the control and the Raspberry Pi’s graphic engine. On the one hand, the device was not prone to build intuitive and collaborative control interfaces (for more than one child). On the other hand, accuracy was compromised, as the same control instructions from buttons could have significant changes in the response behavior depending on the applied pressure and interval times between repeated instructions.
Our study has pinpointed some weaknesses in the existing measurements of RT. The proposed and developed system has tackled some of the limitations of RT systems’ control and design for education. In particular, the system contributes to the development of RT from visual and auditory stimuli to promote students’ FOA and better performance of the SG as a complement to the learning processes. The resulting methods primarily target children above three years old to promote the development of their FOA, motor, and cognitive skills.
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