15 December | Münster
During the final weeks of 2022, Science-to-Business Marketing Research Center hosted an educational escape room (EER) activity, as part of the Erasmus+ project "UNLOCK: Creativity through game-based learning at higher education". The EER was attended by 10 participants that involved a mix of academic lecturer/ teacher trainers, start-up mentors, research associates, lecturers, and bachelor students. The participants were divided into 3 different groups and each group had around 20 minutes to solve all the puzzles in the set-up room. The main theme covered was electricity, with the purpose of raising awareness of the players on the topic of energy saving. The EER is adopted and expanded from the DIY Escape Room created within the project "EnerChange: Overcoming the divide in NRW - communicating the energy transition for all", funded by the Ministry for Economy, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of NRW.
The EER is prepared for those who want to gain further knowledge on the subject of sustainability, irrespective of the field of study background. The EER can be used, for example, within the framework of a relevant event, or a course module. There are no limits to the ways in which the EER can be launched, however, small group settings are suggested due to the linear structure of the game.
Overall, the EER received lots of positive feedback from the participants. Having their first experience with an EER, different than a commercial one, the participants expressed that they were inspired to use the method in their professional contexts. The concept will be further developed and exploited internally, with the support of the internal teaching quality team of MUAS, who are currently leading the training program for the academic staff on the use of EERs, with UNLOCK MOOC in the core.
