The Bridgend College Escape Room (QAA 1 3 6 7) #FEEUK

Objectives

• To help learners identify and develop key ACRO skills - communication, team work, decision making, planning and organisation, tenacity, problem solving and lateral thinking.
• To maximise learner engagement with enterprise and entrepreneurship education by creating a short, impactful experiential learning activity that captured the imagination of both staff and students and created a ‘buzz’ around enterprise.    

Introduction 

The Bridgend College Escape Room is a dedicated room (the Enterprise Hub) that has been transformed into an Escape Room. The premise is that it is a stately home, Pen -y-bont Hall, three rooms of which the owners have converted into an Escape Room to fund repairs to the building. Lord and Lady 

Pen-y-bont are looking for enterprising people to run the venture for them and the first stage of the interview process is to complete the Escape Room challenge in a group of 8 or fewer candidates. Learners must solve a series of puzzles to unlock four boxes in the correct order, eventually finding the information they need to crack the code on the door in the last box. 

Activity

Learners must solve a series of puzzles to unlock four boxes in the correct order, eventually finding the information they need to crack the code on the exit door which can be found in the last box. The puzzles all aim to test learners’ skills in different ways e.g. there are clues that are very well hidden that require take tenacity and motivation to find, crossword, riddles and maths puzzles that test literacy and numeracy skills and lateral thinking puzzles of various sorts that require teamwork to solve. 

All the puzzles were specially created for the Escape Room and the Enterprise Hub (essentially a room the size of a classroom) has been permanently transformed into ‘Pen-y-bont Hall’ for the activity i.e. wallpaper has been put up to resemble wood panelling, ‘Victorian’ furniture has been bought from charity shops and numerous props are in place to create a space that is worlds apart from any other in Bridgend College.

As the puzzles remain the same for all groups at all levels, I stay in the Escape Room with the teams (eight is the maximum number of learners allowed to take part with six probably being the optimum number for engagement by everyone) and I provide hints/clues when necessary. All groups have needed some guidance/ clarification including teams of staff members who have undertaken the challenge as a team building activity.  

Teams receive a briefing on entering the Escape Room and are told they must put their mobile phones in the boxes provided (which stay in the room)and are given 45 minutes to work out the code to the lock on the door ( the lock is actually attached to the door by a wide ribbon which can be untied in case of an emergency but learners accept this and still feel ‘locked in’ but not in any way panicked). I felt it was extremely important to emphasize that if learners felt uncomfortable or claustrophobic they could leave at any time - thankfully, no one has yet and that is because the atmosphere created feels exciting and fun as opposed to frightening in any way.      

Impact 

The impact on learners has been significant. Over four hundred students have taken on the Escape Room challenge so far and it has been great to hear that lecturers have been undertaking debriefs to talk to learners about all the ACRO skills they used and the key strengths they identified when completing the task/s. The task works particularly well if learners undertake the Enterprise Catalyst beforehand and have a follow up session to reflect on to what extent what they learned about themselves by completing the psychometric test was borne out during the challenge.    

Learner feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with the words most often used being - fun, challenging, exhilarating and exciting. Problem solving, teamwork and communication are the skills most highlighted by learners as being used or developed during the challenge.  

Staff feedback has also been extremely positive with lecturers using the experience as both a learning exercise and an incentive/ reward/ treat for learners.  It has proved very effective to help learners get to know each other, bond more quickly and form strong teams and also to help them identify and be able to articulate key strengths of which they were previously unaware.        

Resources

• Lockable boxes and locks of various types e.g. padlocks, locks with number codes, locks with letter codes  
• Unusual objects in which clues can be hidden – e.g. hollow ornaments, ‘clock safes’, ‘book safes’ 
• A variety of different puzzles e.g. riddles, brainteasers, jigsaws, crosswords, word searches, ciphers
• Props and decorations to set the scene for the theme you have chosen

Pictures or images

References

https://dig-itgames.com/educational-escape-rooms-in-the-classroom/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/the-rise-of-educational-escape-rooms/493316/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1076633219302399
https://archive.dmll.org.uk/resources/tools/teaching-and-learning/educational-escape-room/
https://lockpaperscissors.co/escape-room-puzzle-ideas
https://activity-mom.com/2018/05/make-your-own-escape-room/
https://nowescape.com/blog/101-best-puzzle-ideas-for-escape-rooms/
https://escaperoomtips.com/design/escape-room-puzzle-ideas