Assessing Multiple Engineering Tasks via Escape Room Game

Abstract Education as a concept includes every effort to train and develop people and their skills by applying the appropriate tools. One type of education is the formal, which includes a logically built and organized curriculum that is under the jurisdiction of state mechanisms. However, there is also a non-formal education which, unlike the formal one, refers to all organized educational programs that take place outside the institutional framework of formal education and are usually voluntary and short in duration. It is mainly addressed to adults and does not have to provide a document certifying education in this field. In this context, the present work, adopting the research methodology based on design, aims to develop and formulate a mobile augmented reality game in the form of escape room/s targeting to train engineers. "Escape Rooms" is the name of an interesting trend of modern times that has flourished in the last decade in many countries around the world. These are puzzle and composition games, in which participants are asked to work together and solve problems using the information that exists in the room/s in order to unlock the door and escape. These types of games belong to the broader category of escape games, but differ from the rest due to the live interaction they provide with the environment. The main benefits of these games are the promotion of collaboration, the development of problem-solving strategies, critical thinking, imagination and creativity, elements that are necessary for the professional activity of an engineer. Escape rooms require teamwork, communication, initiative, as well as critical thinking and attention to detail along with an ability to apply a wide range of knowledge and effective methods under the pressure of time. The purpose of this paper is the evaluation of advanced students, through a series of high level and content of polytechnic questions, in the context of group collaborations that are formed during the coexistence of students in escape rooms, where an augmented reality is incorporated. Finally, the aim of this work is the implementation and evaluation of one or more thematic escape rooms regarding the mobilization, satisfaction and involvement of polytechnic students in puzzles and problems that require significant engineering knowledge.