Escape Racism: Using the EscapED Methodology to Inform the Design of Educational Escape Rooms

Over the last decade, escape rooms have been increasingly recognized for their educational value, leading to the publication of several theoretical models to facilitate their design. The earliest of these is widely perceived as the escapED framework. In this paper, we present Escape Racism, which involved the creation of 10 educational escape rooms using the escapED methodology to inform their design. We present a case study outlining the design-based development process undertaken using the escapED methodology. We then reflect upon this process, discussing modifications that were made within the framework during development. Data collected from 215 educators, youth workers, and young people, who evaluated the escape rooms, is then analysed and presented. The findings revealed that the escapED framework was both usable and effective in their creation, however, the development process undertaken by the authors was more agile and iterative than originally described. Additionally, a mixed methods approach was employed to evaluate the impact of escapED’s usage within Escape Racism. The findings from the study demonstrated that the knowledge gained from playing escape rooms created using escapED was increased and also delivered an emotional response amongst participants.