Learning from Mystery Breakout Games

Written on September 22,, 2019

After spending time creating four breakout games for my Accounting, Web Design, Word and Excel classes, I finally was able to implement the games into my classroom.

When I created the games I was not sure about the level of difficulty. That was a concern. I did not want them to be too easy, but I also didn't want them to be too difficult. My Web Design class was the first class to take on the online escape rooms. I was really surprised and happy to see how excited and engaged they became in the game. In my Web Design class, everyone was able to finish. That was great. I gave the first place winners a bonus as well as all of the students who completed the game. They worked in teams of two and they did quite well.

There were points where they became frustrated because they had trouble deciphering the clue for a particular lock, but that didn't keep them from trying. There were times where I had to give a couple of hints, but overall, they were able to work together to solve the mysteries. In my Accounting class, the one clue that stumped everyone was the one that I thought was too easy. After awhile, I did give them a few clues, and once they figure it out, they commented that they were just overthinking the lock.

When all was said and done, I asked the students if the level of difficulty was too hard, just right or too easy. They all felt that it was about right. They shared that some of the locks were hard and it took them awhile to figure them out, where other ones were easy. The Web Design class had about 18 locks they had to solve and they were able to complete them in the 77 minutes time period. My other classes had anywhere between 12 and 16. In a couple of classes, I had a two teams that were not able to finish.

In the games, I had various types of locks: word scrabble, image comparisons, clues, and assembling puzzles to find clues, etc. The students really liked the puzzles that they had to assemble as well as the picture clues. I put together two to three images that gave them a clue as to the lock answer.

What I learned from the breakout games was that students sometime struggle with matching ideas when they are taken out of the context of the book. I found that these types of games challenge the students in their problem-solving abilities, their ability to analyze and use ideas; and apply these concepts into a new scenario.

After reflecting on the goal of the games, I asked myself whether the students accomplished the goals for the lesson. I was really surprised at how these games incorporated everything that I wanted them to learn. I wanted them to have to problem-solve together; I wanted them to work together in teams;  and I wanted them to analyze what they had previously learned and apply them into new situations. What was great about the games was that the students enjoyed the day and had fun. I hope that they are learning that with the right types of tools, learning can be engaging and fun.


I am in the process of creating a few more escape rooms. The students loved them and are anxiously awaiting the new round of games.