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Summary
Many teachers want to use escape box concepts, but are uncertain what design helps to
improve learning outcomes. Collaborative learning, immersion and debriefing, are suggested
to have a positive influence on learning in escape box concepts. This study researched
interventions and their effectiveness to add these three elements. An existing design for an
escape box game was revised to add collaborative learning, immersion and debriefing. The
box was tested with fifty secondary school students. They filled in a questionnaire, and some
students were interviewed in small groups. Also, the teachers were interviewed. The results
show that students do collaborate, but it rarely leads to collaborative learning. However,
there is an indication that creating a design that allows students to work in pairs or groups of
three has a positive effect on collaboration. Also constructing puzzles with multiple roles
might help collaboration. These options may be steps towards collaborative learning. It
seems that the escape box concept, with puzzles and locks, gets students very immersed
and it is possible that the narrative and role-play do not play a significant role. Nonetheless,
both teachers and students like the narrative and role-play. Debriefing is necessary for
students to internalise knowledge, but it is yet unclear what type of debrief would fit best with
the escape box concept. An end-puzzle or assignment to combine collaborative learning and
debriefing would be interesting to analyse in further research. The results from this study
could give teachers a better idea of how to design an escape box concept that is benefitting
for learning.