159 Escape the Conference Room

A Virus Infected Your Laptop. Let’s Play an Escape Game

Have you ever thought what would happen if a ransomware infected your laptop? This type of virus kidnaps files and encrypts them, and the only way to recover the data is by paying in bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency. This situation is undoubtedly terrible. All of your work, projects, and personal files will not be available (unless you pay the ransom). The first time students watched a video that contextualizes this stressful situation, they thought that they had been attacked by a computer virus. Fortunately, the panic only lasted a few seconds. This is the way to start a game called breakout or escape room. The difference between these two words is that, in the first case, the goal is to open a padlocked box, while the objective of an escape room is to find the key that allows to get out of a room. Both games are similar, containing riddles, puzzles, problems and some clues that would help the players to find the solution. This study analyses the use of a breakout game for educational purposes, more specifically in a university context. The experiment conducted mixes game–based learning methodologies with engineering students learning Linear Algebra, Calculus or Cryptography, which has allowed us to obtain promising results about the usage of this methodology.

Utilisation des jeux d’évasion en santé : une revue de littérature

BACKGROUND

Many different teaching strategies are used to promote learning in an academic or professional environment. Among these can be noted the emergence of simulation, based on the concept of escape games.

OBJECTIVE

To identify methodologies relating to the use, design, and implementation of escape games in health care.

DATA SOURCES

The Pubmed, Embase, and CINAHL databases were searched up to December 3, 2018.

STUDY SELECTION

All studies focusing on the design or development of escape games in the health care field (published in English or French) were included.

DATA EXTRACTION

For each study, the country, target population, design, development, method of evaluation, and results were extracted for analysis.

DATA SYNTHESIS

Seven poster abstracts and 9 published articles were included. Twelve escape games were developed in the United States. They were used in medicine (n = 5), pharmacy (n = 4), nursing (n = 4) and other fields (n = 3), mainly within academic teaching contexts (n = 12) but also in professional settings (n = 4). Their goals were to improve knowledge (n = 8), to increase participants' interest and motivation regarding a specific topic (n = 2), and to improve cohesion and communication within a team (n = 2). Ten of the escape games described in the articles were based on a clinical scenario. Ten of the research teams held debriefings with participants, and one did not; 5 articles did not report information about debriefing.

CONCLUSIONS

Few data exist concerning the use of escape games in the health care setting, and it is too early to judge the efficiency of this approach to learning. However, growing interest justifies systematic monitoring of the literature to follow the evolution of such strategies and to better understand their place in health care education.