Unlocking Animal Farm: Escape rooms as pedagogical tools for the teaching of literature in higher education

Abstract

Over the last years educators have tried to get students actively involved in interactive activities through the incorporation of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and technology-enhanced practices following a game-based learning approach (Dichev, Dicheva & Irwin, 2020; Bellés- Calvera, 2018; Clarke, Peel, Arnab, Morini, Keegan & Wood, 2017; Rau, Kennedy, Oxtoby, Bollom, & Moore, 2017). Some of them have addressed the design of customised gamified initiatives to boost learners motivation (Dichev, Dicheva & Irwin, 2020), while others have been devoted the development of writing, reading, speaking, and listening abilities (Gharehblagh & Nasri, 2020; Sejdiu, 2017; González Otero, 2016, Jalaluddin, 2016). For instance, the integration of Voki within learning programmes has reported positive outcomes in English pronunciation (Bellés-Calvera & Bellés-Fortuño, 2018a). Tools such as Kahoot, Quizlet, Socrative and Bombay TV have also proven to be valuable for the retention of vocabulary (Vurdien, 2020; Montaner-Villalba, 2018; Bellés-Fortuño & Martínez-Hernández, 2019; Bellés-Calvera & Bellés-Fortuño, 2018b). Furthermore, such gamification tools have shown higher student engagement in formative and summative assessments (Ab. Rahman, Ahmad & Hashim, 2018).