University distance learning has democratized access to knowledge, but it has also exposed a persistent crack: student demotivation. In front of a screen, without the energy of the classroom or the constant interaction with peers and instructors, many students find it easy to disengage.
This challenge is the starting point of a study by Juana Marii Padilla Piernas, María Concepción Parra Meroño, and María del Pilar Flores Asenjo, researchers at the Catholic University of Murcia, who propose a solution that is as pedagogical as it is playful. Their approach involves bringing the logic of Escape Rooms, those time-pressured puzzle games, into the online environment to transform learning into an immersive experience capable of reactivating students’ interest and participation.
The design is far from improvised. The authors structure the activity around the AIDA model, a classic framework from marketing that describes the journey from Attention to Action, passing through Interest and Desire. Applied to the virtual classroom, the model translates into an engaging narrative, progressive challenges, and clear rewards.
In this case, the Escape Room revolves around International Trade content. Students must “travel” across different countries, solve cultural and strategic challenges, gather codes, and ultimately open a safe that symbolizes overcoming the final obstacle. Each stage is carefully calibrated to maintain the right level of cognitive tension, avoiding both boredom and frustration, while encouraging collaboration and decision-making. At the end, an integrated survey within the game collects participants’ feedback and helps measure the experience’s impact.
The data support the pedagogical intuition. Ratings for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action are consistently high, with averages above 4 out of 5, and students describe the activity as motivating, dynamic, and helpful for better understanding the material. It is not just about having fun, but about engaging more deeply with the content and retaining what has been learned.
The study therefore suggests that virtual Escape Rooms can become an effective tool to combat apathy in higher distance education and to promote more active and meaningful learning. The final note is realistic: designing these experiences requires time, planning, and significant effort from instructors. But when the alternative is student disengagement, the investment appears well worth it.
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How to Cite: Padilla Piernas, J. M., Parra Meroño, M. C., & Flores Asenjo, M. del P. (2024). Virtual Escape Rooms: a gamification tool to enhance motivation in distance education. RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 27(1), 61–85. https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.27.1.37685
