Launching Cost-effective Virtual Escape Rooms as a Tool for Formative Assessment

: This paper describes an innovative tool for formative assessment. This involves designing and implementing a Virtual Escape Room for students of Master’s in Health Professions Education (MHPE) at Gulf Medical University. Escape Room is a type of game-based education where players are constrained in a room, and they must solve a series of interconnected challenges in the form of puzzles or riddles to escape the room. Escape rooms are proved to be innovative and engaging learning strategies, although they are resource intensive. We developed cost-effective virtual escape room with the help of Google Workspace tools. Two cycles of escape rooms were conducted on different courses in similar fashion. Questions were based on the learning objectives of selected courses of Master’s in Health Professions Education. These tools were interconnected and revolved around a captivating storyline. Twelve students were grouped into teams of four and were subjected to the game. They played as teams on a smart device for a time duration of ten minutes. Post-activity students were given feedback on their performance on questions and on team-based skills. Students were then engaged in open discussion on their experience, and this was documented for analysis. They also gave feedback on google forms. Analysis of feedback revealed that escape room enhanced students’ engagement and motivation towards learning. It helped foster leadership and team-building skills along with effectively recalling the learned concepts. In addition, students learned to handle stress when faced with challenges. Faculty, on the other hand, developed the skills to plan and execute a unique learning activity. We continue to learn from this experience and will explore further opportunities to expose students and faculty to such engaging and unique learning activities.