Gamification in learning: the reading escape room / Nur Farhana Nasri ... [et al.]

There are students that face difficulties in understanding reading skills through a conventional teaching method. This is due to the conventional teaching method that lacks engaging activities for the students. As a result, the inadequacy of classroom activities has caused students to be unable to learn collaboratively among themselves. Thus, The Reading Escape Room is developed to (1) boost students’ learning interests, (2) increase students’ engagement in learning English reading skills, (3) enhance students’ understanding of the lessons taught, and (4) encourage students to take risks and practise problem-solving skills. The concept of ‘Escape Room’ to teach English reading skills is a fresh idea and one of the earliest to be introduced. It develops students’ thinking skills in solving problems and at the same time stimulates students’ learning engagement and embraces the role of Gamification in Education. A quantitative study was carried out to 212 students of ESL classrooms. The findings revealed that the majority of the students has a positive overall opinion on the educational escape room with 96.2% ranging from good to very good and 99.5% students recommended this game to be played by other students even if it was not for the grade. It clearly brings benefits to the students as it improves their understanding of the subject matter, attracts students’ interest in learning through the interactive interface of the game, and encourages teamwork skills among students. The Reading Escape Room game bears high commercial potential as it promotes a fun, interactive, and engaging educational tool to learn reading skills and can be utilised in higher institutions and schools as it offers an interactive and creative online learning tool.