Escape (the Traditional Class-) Room: Gamification and Mixed Reality in Higher Education

In education, methods are constantly evolving and developing in order to increase learning outcomes and support the learning process. Several measures are undertaken to help learners concern themselves with e.g. abstract contents. Some of them are taken from commercial origins like Escape Rooms in order to increase the motivation or enjoyment of learning processes. Gamification and Mixed Reality are major trends in higher education deriving from such commercial origins. Gamification, on the methodological level, aims at making traditional classes, learning processes, and single exercises or learning contents more attractive. Mixed Reality (MR), on the technology level, displays a visual, interactive, and realistic way for conveying complex or abstract learning contents. Due to their high motivational potential to students, these two trends can be combined - in specific didactically reasonable contexts and ways - for modernising teaching and learning, especially in the field of engineering education. With the potential of gamification being highly motivating and MR being a visual technology (e.g. displaying abstract learning contents in a tangible manner), various use cases can be identified and tackled in engineering disciplines. One example is displayed in the paper available with a specific Escape Room scenario. However, the integration of these methods and technologies is often a challenge to university teachers due to limited resources (e.g. time, staff, money) or a lack of knowledge. Therefore, a workshop for lecturers is developed to increase acceptance and raise awareness and the capacity for a reasonable use of modern technologies and methods in education. The workshop aims at informing about current possibilities, the variety of methods and tools, practicing the use to qualify and enable lecturers as well as raising awareness for the possible impact of gamification and MR on the learning process. Based on David Kolb's experiential learning model, the workshop aims at presenting hands-on experiences of different methods and technologies in the scope of these two trends. Also, possibilities of combining Gamification and Mixed Reality are integrated. One especially important element is a specifically developed Escape Room-like scenario for consolidating and transferring knowledge from theoretical classes into a hands-on experience for students. This paper presents the underlying hypotheses and requirements of the scenario and its integration into the workshop for teachers. It aims at discussing the chances and challenges of introducing Gamification and Mixed Reality into higher education classes as well as reflecting on the requirements and design criteria for the Escape Room-based scenario developed for the workshop.