Since 2018, Dr Robert Ross has designed dozens of educational escape rooms, a form of game-based learning that borrows the problem-solving and collaborative features of popular recreational escape rooms.
Now, he is applying this approach to teach robotics.
Dr Ross says his research addresses a long-standing challenge in education – student motivation.
“It can be hard to engage students in a way that boosts their intrinsic motivation, where they actually want to learn, rather than just going through the motions.”
“One approach that is gaining global interest is the use of educational escape rooms. While they have been used successfully in fields ranging from medicine to physics, they haven’t yet been tested in robotics education,” he adds.
To fill this gap, Dr Ross and his team developed two immersive escape rooms designed to teach robotics principles.
“Our aim was to create an engaging robotics learning activity that motivates students and encourages them to work together,” he explains.
The results of the beta test were promising, with students reporting very high intrinsic motivation, engagement and satisfaction, even when faced with challenging tasks.
“We found that the educational escape room format provides good scope for peer interactions and collaborative problem-solving.”
The researchers will now modify the escape room activities based on student feedback, before rolling them out to high school and university classrooms across Australia.
“We also see exciting potential for activities that incorporate human–robot interaction, where students can control a robot to solve escape room challenges,” Dr Ross adds.
“Ultimately, we hope the escape rooms will inspire the next generation of robotics enthusiasts.”
