Learning Through Designing: A Visual Inquiry Tool for Digital Educational Escape Games

Digital escape games are getting attention for educational purposes, typically by letting students play a certain game to engage with a new topic and gain knowledge. But what about letting students design escape games instead of just playing them? By following a design-oriented learning approach, this paper explores the educational potential of students creating their own escape games as part of their coursework. We introduce the Escape This! Canvas, a visual inquiry tool that supports the process of designing educational escape games from creating a first idea and theme, over specifying a game structure, to reflecting and measuring the actual learning objectives. Our canvas aids in exploring, structuring, and communicating key design elements important for building new digital escape rooms. This paper contributes to understanding the components necessary for crafting educational escape games, offering a practical tool for iterative planning and project communication, and sheds light on the value of the design of escape rooms for educational purposes.