How the University of Texas at San Antonio Sparked Student Engagement With Interactive Escape Rooms

All images courtesy of UTSA

 The challenge

Exams and exam prep are stressful educational experiences. Elyse Ramirez, lead learning and experience designer for the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), use digital escape rooms and gamification to help students with exam reviews, promote active learning, and foster real-world skill development.

The solution

PlayPosit by WeVideo gave the University of Texas at San Antonio an interactive video platform seamlessly paired with escape rooms and gamified learning activities. Professors used PlayPosit to:

• Design with accessibility in mind: Elyse implements puzzles related to screen readers, keyboard navigation, and assistive technology. PlayPosit also offers hot spots to let students choose their pathways.
• Create active learning experiences: Elyse uses PlayPosit to create content that's available on all devices, including desktop, mobile, and tablets. This enhances inclusivity, accessibility, and optimal participation.
• Implement dynamic course creation: Elyse includes clues inside feedback questions for students to unscramble before proceeding.

PlayPosit commitment to inclusivity through features like alternative text for images, captions, and audio gives students the option to learn in ways that best serve them.

Key takeaways

Using escape rooms and PlayPosittogether has shown:

• Enhanced Engagement: Escape rooms fuel retention, motivation, and fun.
• Effective Assessment: Validates PlayPosit as a critical thinking tool.
• Higher Ed Potential: Promises for gamified activities in higher education.

Whether for exam prep, group projects, real-world skill development, or all of the above, PlayPosit makes it easy for educators to enhance learning outcomes and student engagement with interactive video.

Hear the full story

Watch Elyse Ramirez share her approach to using PlayPosit in University of Texas at San Antonio's courses, recorded during the PlayPosit Exchange summer event. Access the full session below.

Benefits of interactive video

• Triple engagement: Measure and assess engagement with powerful analytics tools that track progress, completion, learner gaps, and more.
• Create on-demand learning: Design flexible and creative self-paced programs with clickable elements like multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, jumps, and puzzles to activate the learning experience.
• Personalize course creation: Easily customize branched learning pathways to suit learner needs and comprehension levels.

Practical strategies for educators

• Identify learning objectives: Align course design with learning objectives. One of Elyse's strategies is setting minimum completion scores to maximize student understanding and completion attempts.
• Create engaging video content: Add relatable storytelling elements, then insert questions, puzzles, and challenges. Elyse notes the importance of storyboarding and adding relevant items to themed rooms while also maintaining an awareness of student sensitivities and triggers.
• Use branched pathways: Using singular processes or jumps, structure pathways according to learner responses and comprehension.