This week, I did a thing! For years I’ve been toying with the idea of trying out a digital escape room with my students. But the process always seemed so daunting. On Wednesday evening, I was going over my Language Arts lesson for the following day. Not feeling content that it would be a successful lesson, I decided I needed to do something more engaging. I pondered a few ideas. I wasn’t convinced any were the direction to go. For some reason, my thoughts kept coming back to the idea of a digital escape room. I kept dismissing it because I was positive the prep time would be too intense. Thankfully, I wasn’t able to fully dismiss the idea and before the end of the night, I had put together a simple activity using Google tools. Today, I want to share how you too can use Google tools for engaging, digital escape rooms.
Escape Rooms Engage People of All Ages
Escape rooms have become extremely popular over the past number of years. My family and I have attempted a few and it has become a bit of a birthday tradition. Many of my students have come to class on a Monday morning talking about their escape room adventures over the weekend.
I have also noticed escape rooms becoming a topic of conversation among educators. I remember a professional development conference that my school district offered a few years ago where they shared how to make your classroom an escape room. In one session, teachers got the chance to experience this classroom escape room and try to use the clues hidden in the room to solve puzzles and escape. It was amazing!
However, as a teacher who works in an online classroom, it was difficult to imagine how I could translate the activity to the dynamics of my own online space. One organization that provides great resources for classroom escape rooms is BreakoutEDU. They provide classroom kits to create the escape room experience and also have some online options. If your school is like mine though, there is not an abundance of funding for those types of extras.
Google Tools To The Rescue!
I think one of the things that I appreciate so much about Google is their commitment to education. Their Google Apps For Education provides teachers and students access to various tools that assist in facilitating learning. It is also one reason why I am such an advocate for Google tools. It is also why I have chosen to integrate them into my lessons. For those of us who don’t have any money in the classroom budget, it certainly doesn’t hurt that these tools are free.
If I’m being totally honest, it is my appreciation of Google Education products that has prompted my desire to pursue the Google Certified Trainer status. Here is my shameless self-promotion. 😁As part of my application process, I am asked to show that I have done Google training sessions. I will be holding a few sessions through the month of December. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in learning more about using Google products and how to integrate them into the classroom, click the image to the left and fill out the Google Tools Survey.
How To Use Google Tools For Engaging Escape Rooms
So, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. How can we use these Google tools for engaging, digital escape rooms? Let me lead you through the process step-by-step.
Difficulty Level: Intermediate To Advanced
Materials Required:
- At least one activity you would like students to complete (I used 3 activities and it used up an entire 60-minute block)
- Google Slides
- Google Forms
STEP 1:
Let’s take the task you would like your students to complete and create an interactive activity using Google Slides (It’s true. . . they aren’t only for presentations! 😲).
One of the activities that I wanted my students to complete was a reading comprehension task. First, I created a new Google Slide.
There are a couple of ways to do this, but I usually prefer to create new files directly within my Google Drive. That way I am able to organize them immediately into folders so I can find them easily in the future.
In Google Drive, Click “New” and then choose “Google Slides”
Next, when I create activities for students using Google Slides I will most often format the standard size. I do this by going to “File” in the top menu bar and then choosing “Page Setup”. The default size is set to “Widescreen 16:9”. However, if you click on the drop-down arrow you will see that there is the choice for “Custom”. In the custom settings, you can modify the length, width, and unit of measurement. For this activity, I will choose 8.5″ x 11″ and then click “Apply”.
My next step was to create three separate pages:
- Instruction page
- Reading passage page
- Activity page
The Activity Page
The activity page consists of six multiple-choice questions based on the reading selection provided. The letters next to each option are a text-box that can be dragged and dropped to the bottom of the page as students make their selection of correct answers.
The six letters that they collect must be rearranged to spell a word (related to the reading).
This is their “code word” for the escape room. If they get it correct, they have escaped.
Your escape room can be limited to one activity if you choose. I would suggest having at least two different activities. With the escape room that I set up this past week, I included three different activities. Each was constructed in a similar way using Google Slides and had an interactive element to it.
One of the activities was vocabulary related. Students had word blocks and definition blocks. They had to drag and drop the blocks so that words and definitions were properly matched to each other. The first letter of each definition represented a letter of the codeword for that room.
The third activity used Google Slides’ new “Insert Audio” feature and required students to listen to the audio for a word and then spell it correctly in a table that looked similar to a crossword puzzle. Certain boxes represented letters in the codeword.
STEP 2:
Once we create all the activities for the students to complete, it is then time to organize our escape room. For this, I chose to use Google Forms. I started by created a new Google Form in my Google Drive the same way I created the Google Slide. Aesthetics are something that is important to me and so the next item that I took care of was uploading a header image and choosing the colour theme for my form.
Next, I titled the form and provided a brief description for the students. I inserted a place for students to identify the group number they were in and the names of their group members.
Each “Room” In Its own section
For each activity that you have in your Digital Escape Room, you will need to insert a section into the Google Form. This is where the students will:
- Get instructions on how to find the activity
- Have a place to submit the codeword
The escape room experience that I chose to go with was to provide a link for students that would prompt them to make a copy of the activity in their own Google Drive. My students worked in groups and chose one person to make a copy and share it with the rest of the group.
When the group finished the escape room activity and thought they had the correct code word to unlock the room, the individual in charge of the form would input the answer and see if they were correct or not.
In order to make sure that students accurately complete each task before moving on to the next, I used response validation for my short answer text answer. In order to find this option, click on the three stacked dots next to the “required” toggle. This way, I am able to ensure that the answer is exactly what I would like it to be before students can proceed to the next section. If they place an incorrect answer in the form, they will get an error message. I chose the message “Still locked!!! Try again.”
This same process can be completed for each different activity you have created. In my case, I had three different sections that included a link to make a copy and a short answer response with response validation.
Congratulations Before Submitting
Finally, I included a congratulations page to indicate to students they had successfully completed the escape room. I had one group that was so proud of their work, they held off on submitting their form because they wanted to look at their congratulations message just a little longer. 😁
While this can be a time-consuming process, once you have created your first Digital Escape Room, it can be a template for the future. I guarantee that your students will appreciate the different approach to classwork. My own students requested, with great exuberance, to do escape rooms every day! I do hope that this tutorial has helped to highlight some ways we are able to use Google Tools for engaging, digital escape rooms.
