ENHANCING ACTIVE LEARNING IN ADVANCED DATABASE COURSES THROUGH AN EDUCATIONAL ESCAPE ROOM APPROACH

The increasing need for active methodologies in higher education has given rise to a set of innovative techniques such as flipped classroom and project-based learning, among others.This active approach facilitates and encourages the acquisition of specific competences and soft skills.In this paper, we present the work conducted as part of the educational innovation project "Fostering Active Learning through Computational Sustainability Projects in Advanced Database Courses".The project aims to develop active learning tools for the course Database Design and Implementation, part of the curricula of the Computer Science degree at Jaume I University.More concretely, in this work we describe how we designed and put into practice an escape room whose games were solved by applying the course contents.The escape room was structured as a sequence of puzzles based on core topics of the course, including logic and physical design, normalization, SQL optimization, and triggers.Students worked in teams to "escape" by solving a series of interconnected tasks that required a deep understanding of database practical skills.Each task was aligned with the course's learning objectives, ensuring that participants not only engaged with the content, but also applied critical thinking and analytical skills in real-time.To assess the effectiveness of the escape room activity as a learning strategy, feedback was collected from the students through a questionnaire.This survey explored their perceptions from two points of view: the escape room experience itself, and its usefulness as a learning tool for the subject.The results are very positive, showing that students experienced a substantial increase in motivation and engagement, as well as reinforced the course contents comprehension.