Using digital escape rooms to enhance data analysis skills and student experience in a higher education human physiology module

Active and gamified teaching methods have garnered significant interest, with an increased demand for higher education institutions to enhance student engagement. One popular example of active learning is the escape room. Escape rooms are playful tools reported to increase students' key transferable skills, which are valuable for students to boost their employability. In recent years, a transition to "digital" computerised escape rooms has allowed participants similar experiences using significantly fewer resources compared to in-person modalities. In physiology, the ability to analyse and interpret data is vital and an intended learning outcome of physiology modules/units. However, many students possess limited experience or exhibit anxiety when conducting data analysis, which leaves them unprepared to do this within a laboratory setting or employment. Therefore, this project aimed to design and develop a digital escape room to allow students to playfully build their analytical skills and assess its impact on student experience and knowledge acquisition. The digital escape room was created using the University of Salford's universal digital escape room platform "UoScape". Students' perceived data analysis skills and experience upon completion were evaluated using pedagogical surveys comprising either open-answer questions or a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 104 second-year undergraduate students completed the evaluation survey. Most students reported positive benefits to their knowledge of physiological data analysis (74.0 %), overall experience (67.3 %), experience of gamified learning (74.0 %) and that it would enhance their overall degree value (68.3 %). The majority of students stated digital escape rooms would support their education (71.2 %) and upcoming assessments (76.0 %). Individual puzzle analysis identified those with mathematical elements as more challenging than image analysis-based puzzles (73.3 % Vs 51.8 %, <i>P</i> = 0.0006). Interestingly, a positive correlation was observed between challenge and enjoyment within mathematics puzzles (R = 0.308, <i>P</i> = 0.004). Stratification based on socioeconomic factors revealed minimal impact on pedagogical measures, with only self-perceived knowledge acquisition being significantly higher in low-access populations (<i>P</i> = 0.046). These data show the equitable pedagogical benefits of digital escape rooms, which enhance students' knowledge of handling physiological data, student experience, and degree value. This highlights the benefits of active gamified teaching methods for physiological concepts within higher education.