Educational Gaming for Pharmacy Students – Design and Evaluation of a Diabetes-themed Escape Room

Abstract

Objective. To design an educational game that will increase third-year professional pharmacy students' knowledge of diabetes mellitus disease management and to evaluate their perceived value of the game. Methods. Faculty members created an innovative educational game, the diabetes escape room. An authentic escape room gaming environment was established through the use of a locked room, an escape time limit, and game rules within which student teams completed complex puzzles focused on diabetes disease management. To evaluate the impact, students completed a pre-test and post-test to measure the knowledge they've gained and a perception survey to identify moderating factors that could help instructors improve the game's effectiveness and utility. Results. Students showed statistically significant increases in knowledge after completion of the game. A one-sample t-test indicated that students' mean perception was statistically significantly higher than the mean value of the evaluation scale. This statically significant result proved that this gaming act offers a potential instructional benefit beyond its novelty. Conclusion. The diabetes escape room proved to be a valuable educational game that increased students' knowledge of diabetes mellitus disease management and showed a positive perceived overall value by student participants.

Non-Scientific University Students Training in General Science Using an Active-Learning Merged Pedagogy: Gamification in a Flipped Classroom

“…This confirms that, for this group of students, these kinds of activities enhance the motivation for the general studies (the whole degree) and above all for the science involved subject. These results are consistent with other experiences analyzing escape rooms [36][37][38].…”

Evaluating Activation and Absence of Negative Effect: Gamification and Escape Rooms for Learning

“…The students' work focuses on putting into practice the knowledge acquired during the conceptualization phase of learning with the ultimate goal of "escaping" from a room [42,43]. This implies better acquisition and reinforcement of the learning content, a better activation of students in their learning process [44], and, consequently, greater satisfaction and attitude of the students when developing a more attractive playful formative process [45].…”

Bringing a Mystery to the Evidence‐Based Practice: Using Escape Rooms to Enhance Learning

“…Challenges previously designed for entertainment settings are now being adopted to engage and motivate K-12 and higher education students in learning. Research findings indicate that there is an educational benefit to using escape rooms for learning, particularly if the learning involves problem-solving activities (Clarke, Peel, Morini, Keegan, & Wood, 2017;Eukel, Frenzel, & Cernusca, 2017). Escape room problem-solving enhances students' decision-making skills (Hermanns et al, 2017) and provides experience with working effectively as a team, all while appealing to their sense of adventure as a means for learning engagement.…”