Abstract:

Entrepreneurship is viewed as a social process where individuals need to collaborate to exploit an opportunity. The collaboration is a central component of educational escape rooms as these games are developed to encourage and enable the participants (in and across teams) to work together to solve the puzzles and escape the room. Current research has shown that millennials prefer informal learning experiences, such as educational escape rooms, due to their flexibility and because their activities generally engage and heighten their interests. These millennials, however, are also questioning how sustainable these escape rooms are. In this context, the track "Educational technology for social change" at Digital Society School has partnered with the Lectorate of Entrepreneurship at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences to address this issue, through a teaching innovation project, which will be offered to students who study entrepreneurship at the university.

Specifically, during June-December 2020, a diverse group of designers, researchers, educators and developers, used design thinking and Agile methodologies to develop a prototype of a sustainable educational escape room for the development of key competencies for the entrepreneurship curricula, such as collaboration and financial literacy.

The use of sustainable materials (those that can be produced in required volumes without depleting non-renewable resources) in the construction of educational escape rooms (EER) and the introduction of digital elements (e.g., applications, QR codes, augmented reality, embedded screens and speakers) into the design of the EER have been the key pillars of innovation of the prototype. Sustainable materials were used to create the physical elements of the EER while minimizing the footprint of the design. Purpose-built EER elements for one learning environment could re-purposed and modified for another learning environment. Important in using sustainable materials is that they were applied in such a way that learning outcomes of the EER are still met. Digital elements supplemented some of the physical components of the EER by offering adaptability. Digital components can be more easily reprogrammed for purpose-built EERs, thus making digital/physical EER elements reusable.

The project features a unique combination of interests and expertise that are shared between the Digital Society School (DSS) and the Lectorate of Entrepreneurship at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. In the past year, the DSS has investigated several digital and physical technologies that aim to benefit society. In addition, DSS started a new line of research on new forms of education (track "Edtech for social change"). The combination of these two key points with the Lectorate’s interest to train the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, becomes a fertile ground for collaboration.

The prototype is a great example of teaching innovation as a result of the collaboration among experts from different disciplines, while it serves the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and, especially, goal 4 "quality education" and goal 12 "responsible consumption and production".

Keywords:

Educational escape rooms, sustainable escape rooms, digital escape rooms, entrepreneurship education, teaching innovation, higher education.