Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 11 Summer 2019 | Page 48

the teams could have done with more direction and
this is something I will consider for future activities
in my role as gamesmaster as Nicholson (2015)
refers to a balance between giving hints to avoid
frustration and not giving hints when teams are
close to working things out, so as not to derail 'ah ha'
moments.
Allowing for absences, I was able to split the first
group into three teams of five and, as previously
alluded to, I expected students to be comfortable
with one another, but they were reluctant to talk.
To be successful at an escape room, teams need to
work together and communicate, qualities expected
in employment as a forensic scientist (Prospects,
2019). An icebreaker activity would help establish
team dynamics, but with limited time that was
not possible. I put subsequent groups into teams
straight away and arranged furniture to encourage
teamwork. This seemed to work better as teams
started analysing the letter containing cryptic clues
as to how to begin the quest.
Some teams took time to process what they needed
to do and others completely missed information
on the wall or did not look at safes where the black
lights were. Some knew they needed to use the
catalogue to find books, but by ignoring the wall,
they missed key clues and attention to detail is a
strong attribute for forensic scientists (Prospects,
2019), though this is perhaps something that will
develop over the course of their studies.
After week one of the activity, I was delighted that
no one had completed the quest, which made
this a challenge and not just a library induction. I
promoted the outcome of the sessions via our social
media channels challenging next week’s groups to
do better. One group came close to completing the
activity (too close!) and many students wanted to try
again with comments such as, “A lot of fun – best
library induction I’ve been to. Would love to do it
again with more time.”
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Conclusion
Although no team successfully managed to
solve the mystery in time and some students
appeared frustrated by the experience, feedback
was overwhelmingly positive during the debrief
demonstrating the effectiveness of delivering an
induction in this way. Pulling the activity together
in four weeks was challenging and timetabling
restrictions were frustrating, though I overcame this
through problem solving.
Library induction can be a tick box exercise and
the ability to deliver it to hundreds of students
simultaneously is an appealing prospect within
some modules and perhaps the best option with
large cohorts. Though, as gatekeepers to learning,
offering an immersive experience that reaches the
higher order levels of learning is the preferred option
than simply imparting knowledge, but that needs
planning and flexibility in terms of time and delivery.
I am keen to develop this activity further and
utilise the safes to advance the activity, though this
means having only one group at a time, which may
prove difficult within the confines of the academic
timetable.
Is this really the future of library induction? There
is still work to do before answering that question
adequately, but I plan to extend this to other subject
areas if there is interest in developing some ‘outside
the box’ delivery and a desire to escape to the
Library.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to David Thompson, Programme
Director for Forensic Science, who purchased the
electronic safes, black lights and prize support for
the activity, which has facilitated the development
of these sessions more in line with traditional
escape room activities. A big thank you to Kizzy
Beaumont, Learning Developer for Natural Sciences,