An escape room uses a game-based
active learning approach to develop
students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills in an
immersive environment. An escape room was developed to provide an
innovative method to reinforce concepts in chemical bonding for a
first-year general chemistry course. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic,
it was unsuitable to implement the escape room in a physical setting,
as students need to interact in close proximity. To circumvent this
problem, a fully digital escape room was developed using Google Forms,
as it is cost-effective, accessible, and easy to use. Students’
feedback indicates that both escape rooms reinforce and motivate learning.
Research-based blended learning (RBBL)
allows students to be part
of an authentic scientific discovery process. In this study, students’
perception and motivation of the RBBL coupled with Scrum methodology
in a third-year polytechnic chemistry laboratory course were investigated.
Results showed that the scaffolded approach, designed referencing
the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework and learning presence, developed
students’ technical and process skills (adaptability, critical
thinking, and problem solving skills). With the positive student–instructor
interaction experienced by the students, they were confident, engaged,
and motivated to work on the research project despite its complexity.
The use of Instagram in education consists of technological, educational, and social affordance. Despite positive reports on using social media for learning, there are no reports on using Instagram as a teaching tool in phenomenon-based learning (PhenoBL) for engineering and science courses. This study seeks to understand students’ motivation and perception and their perceived learning outcomes using Instagram for PhenoBL. The findings provided empirical evidence that students had a positive perception of the Instagram activity and were motivated to complete the activity, leading to a positive learning outcome. Through these findings, good practices of using Instagram in PhenoBL to provide better learning motivation and perception in engineering and science courses were proposed.
An educational escape room uses a game-based active learning approach to develop students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills in an immersive environment. In this chapter, the authors conducted an evaluation of two physical and digital educational escape rooms that were previously developed to provide an innovative learning activity to reinforce concepts and/or address misconceptions in chemistry for general chemistry courses. The evaluation demonstrated that both educational escape rooms are highly effective as teaching tools. Students’ provided positive feedback, highlighting that the educational escape rooms reinforce and motivate learning. Hence, integrating educational escape rooms with conventional lessons can offer students a holistic and captivating learning experience.
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