Situated Game-based Learning: A Methodology for Developing Educational Escape Games

The increase in the consumption of processed food and prevalence of chronic diseases, strengthened the need of educating the public about healthy eating. One way of doing so is by educating through games. Recently, a new type of game-based learning has been used, called educational escape games. These games are a new phenomenon; therefore, it is important to examine the way they are planned and implemented, and their educational value. Hence, the goal of the current study was to develop and implement an 'educational escape game' (EduEG) methodology and examine its role in facilitating knowledge construction and motivation to learn about healthy nutrition. Guided by the Situated Learning theory, the study included two stages: preliminary and main. The preliminary study was administrated among 54 science education pre-and in-service teachers, leading to the design of the SL-oriented EduEG methodology and an educational escape game on healthy nutrition. The main study was conducted among 228 adults, aged 18 to 40, who played the game and evaluated its educational value. The data were collected through a survey, a questionnaire on knowledge and motivation, game-play observations, and interviews. The findings indicated four situated learning components characterizing the EduEG methodology: Authentic context, experts' knowledge, collaboration, and self-reflection, which were integrated in a two-stage model. Based on it, an educational escape game was developed, facilitating knowledge construction and motivation to learn. The learner's self-efficacy was a main contributor to the overall motivation to learn in a situated game-based environment.