The escape game ::a tool to foster student creativity

The 21st century is one of evolution and change. The impact on education is now being felt at all levels and concerns students of all ages. Keeping in mind the changing skills set that industry expects from graduates, one that includes competencies such as creativity, flexibility, and critical thinking, it behoves educators to find ways to innovate in their classrooms in order to develop such skills. Drawing on experiential learning and principles of gamification an ongoing mixed-method’s project is currently evaluating the use of an interactive exercise as a way to impact student engagement and motivation as well as examining the creative processes brought into play and the emotions felt by the participants. An escape game was designed specifically for final-year Masters students (n=10) in answer to these objectives. An in-depth analysis was carried out using a variety of methods from observation to text analysis. Both quantitativeand qualitative results support a positive relationship between motivation to learn, creativity, and emotions felt. This paper presents an in depth analysis of the qualitative results alone. Quantitative results will be published subsequently. Findings are discussed in terms of innovative classroom practice and will be of interest to educators, instructional designers and programme directors alike