Escape Individually or in Groups: Comparison of the Effectiveness of the Two Organizational Methods

Abstract

During the COVID epidemic some teachers tried to use educational escape rooms to motivate their students to learn from home. In most cases they had to play alone, but the breakout games were originally played in groups. The aim of this research was to compare the learning effects of individually played educational escape rooms with those which played in groups.  According to the literature there was some uncertainty of the efficiency of this type of game too. The results of this study have shown that escape rooms can be effective learning tools either played alone or in teams. The knowledge of the students was measured right before the escape room, immediately after the game and one month later. Both classes produced significantly better results immediately after both post-tests than on pre-test. This paper also compares the improvements of the two classes. It has been found that the team players’ performance has improved to a significantly greater extent than individual players’. Besides, the significant difference which was measured on the pre-test disappeared after the game in both post-tests.

Keywords: Educational Escape Rooms, individually played, team play, feedback, learning effects

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-30-02

Publication date:October 31^st 2022