Creating a Tabletop Escape Room Activity to Enrich Students' Change Management Education

• Published in: The Journal of health administration education Vol. 37; no. 2; p. 213
• Main Authors: Allgood, Ashleigh M, Brown, Michelle R, Meese, Katherine A, Borkowski, Nancy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Arlington Association of University Programs in Health Administration 01.07.2020
• Subjects: Collaboration; Educational Games; Escape rooms; Experiential Learning; Teaching Methods
• ISSN: 0735-6722

Although healthcare is highly collaborative and rapidly advancing, our teaching methods remain largely traditional and instructor-centered. As educators, we should strive to include experiential learning and team-based activities in our learner-centered classrooms. Game-based learning (GBL) is a valid alternative to traditional didactic instruction. It has been shown to be as effective as traditional teaching with respect to retention, while promoting positive attitudes about learning (Fukuchi, Offut, Sacks, & Mann, 2000; O'Leary, Diepenhorst, Churley-Strom, & Magrane, 2005). GBL partners well with principles of andragogy as it is problem-centered and allows the learner to have some control over the learning experience (Knowles, 1996). This article describes a GBL escape room activity with the goal of engaging learners in an experience that would allow them to familiarize themselves with the eight sequential steps of Kotter's (1996) change management model as well develop their communication and teamwork skills. We crafted a tabletop version of an escape room based on evidence-based techniques from the field of simulation. This compact activity, which was both space- and cost-effective, allowed students the opportunity to learn about the necessary steps for successful change management in an exercise that involved collaboration with peers, to arrive at a common goal.