Dr Nicky Morgan N.L.Morgan@salford.ac.uk
Specialist Technician
Abstract
Active and gamified teaching methods have received significant interest within higher education. One active approach that has recently gained popularity is that of escape rooms and in particular digital escape rooms. In biochemical sciences generally, the ability to analyse and interpret data is an important learning outcome, however, undergraduate students often possess limited experience in utilising key analytical skills. The use of escape rooms may offer a playful route to supporting students with this key threshold concept. Therefore, this project aims to develop a digital escape room to enhance students’ analytical skills and assess its impact on student experience.
The digital escape room was created using the University of Salford’s digital escape room platform “UoScape” as previously described in Morgan & Jones, 2025. Students perceived data analysis skills and experience were evaluated using pedagogical surveys comprising either open-answer or 5-point Likert scale questions (Hussain et al. 2023). This study was approved by the University of Salford's ethical review board (14273).
Most students (n=104) reported an enhancement of their knowledge of data analysis (74.0%). Students (67.3%) reported a positive experience completing the digital escape room. Students described positive experiences with gamified learning (74.0%), and that it enhanced the value of their degree (68.3%). Students (76.0%) stated that the digital escape room would support their upcoming assessments. Students reported puzzles containing mathematical elements (51.8%) were more challenging than image analysis puzzles (73.3%). When responses were stratified based on socioeconomic factors and higher education entry qualifications, we observed no significant difference between group responses.
These data show the pedagogical benefits of digital escape rooms in enhancing students’ knowledge of data handling and interpretation, student experience, and overall degree value.
