Pushing Active Learning Into Assessment With a Genetics Escape-Room Final: Gamification to Develop Team Skills in STEM, on Ground and Online
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33423/jhetp.v21i11.4665Keywords:
higher education, gamification, team skills, active learning final exam, escape room final, STEM, problem solving, pedagogical assessment, leadership, communication, stress reduction, URM, peer learning, undergraduate, final exam, STEM final examAbstract
Upper-level, undergraduate STEM courses, which often integrate several disciplines, turn comprehensive finals from assessment tools into torturous hurdles. To extend the benefits of active learning to assessment, we transformed a comprehensive, 300-level Genetics final into a team-based escape room, operable both on ground and online. Quantitative and qualitative data support that this gamification and mastery-based approach in biology significantly improved students’ team skills, problem solving ability, courage to speak up, leadership, eased their stress, and furthered student learning while remaining a valuable assessment tool. A detailed description of student activities is presented for generalization of exam gamification to other STEM disciplines.
