Escaping the Routine: Virtual Escape Rooms in Online Hospitality Courses

Virtual escape rooms (VER) are online educational games that place learners in the scenario of being locked in a specified environment and require them to collect clues, answer questions, or solve puzzles in exchange for an escape code. This paper documents the process of designing a VER for an online hospitality course using Google Workspace tools (i.e., Google Sites, Slides, and Forms). The paper walks the readers through the VER design process, which includes identifying the purpose of creating a VER, creating a storyline, preparing clues (e.g., puzzles and activities for students to solve), setting up an escape code, and collecting student feedback. This process may be followed by online instructors to create VERs that will meet the needs of their courses. The same process may be applied when developing VERs in other environments (e.g., Microsoft products, mobile apps, or metaverse). Based on the feedback of 21 students who participated in the VER described in this paper, the experience was engaging, fun, enjoyable, and helped them learn and understand the class material. This paper may be useful for hospitality and tourism instructors, industry training professionals, and instructional designers.