Abstract:

Sexually transmitted infections (STI) are a serious public health problem and have been increasing in recent years. In the UK, for example, Public Health England (PHE) reported almost half a million diagnoses of STIs in 2019, a 5% increase from 2018. Plesons et al. (2019) stated that biomedical and technological innovations are increasingly providing new opportunities for adolescents to exercise self-efficacy and autonomy in obtaining health services, as in the case of self-care. Serious games is a new learning medium that can support teachers' practices providing further understanding and meaningful experiences to students so that students learn concepts through playing. Thus, providing Sex Education Knowledge through a serious game can be a useful tool in the teaching–learning process for children. In this paper we present the design, development and evaluation of an escape room serious game which aims to teach sex safety to students. Educational Escape Rooms (EERs) have become a promising scientific field and have raised great interest in researchers and educators in terms of new Game‐Based Learning (GBL) approaches to break out from the traditional classroom and affect various specialties and educational contexts. The Educational Escape Room Serious Game was tested in a School in Greece (Lesvos) by 50 students aged 15-17 years old. A questionnaire was answered by students after playing the game for 2 weeks.

The results from the questionnaire are very positive regarding direct and indirect educational benefits of students through playing this Educational Escape Room Serious Game showing that the Educational Escape Room Serious Game enhanced students in various fields.Specifically students improved their:
(a) Sex Education Knowledge,
(b) collaboration,
(c) learning motivation &
(d) engagement.

Keywords:

Distance Learning, Serious Game, e-learning, Sex Education, escape rooms.