A CTF-like Escape Room for STEM Assessment

Educational escape rooms have been widely used in education in recent years. On the other hand, capture the flag (CTF) competitions have been spreading from the cybersecurity area into other domains. In this paper, a fusion of both concepts is proposed in the form of a CTF-like escape room in order to carry out the assessment of a STEM course. Each puzzle within the escape room consisted of designing a short code snippet as part of a protocol engineering course, with up to three hidden hints available. Each hint incurred a 25% penalty, deducted from the score awarded for solving the puzzle, as is common in CTF environments. This approach can be applied to small problem-solving tasks across many disciplines and educational contexts. Data collection consisted of gathering the marks of all students enrolled in the courses on an anonymized basis, after they had provided informed consent, and data analysis was then performed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results suggest a statistically significant increase in average academic performance compared to the previous academic year, during which assessment was conducted through written exams. In addition, engagement was measured using the ISA Engagement Scale, showing a high level of student involvement. Nevertheless, further research with a larger sample of students is needed in order to confirm these findings. In summary, a novel approach to STEM assessment is presented, as the solution of each puzzle requires not only recall but also critical thinking, technical proficiency, and application.