Digital Escape Room: Students’ Perceptions as an Educational Tool in Learning Reading Skills

Abstract

Conventional teaching method that lacks engaging activities for students could become a challenge in learning. Though past literature on the use of digital escape room in classroom is growing, studies related to digital escape rooms in the field of social science such as English language are still in need. As students’ beliefs and perceptions are important in the ability to learn the language, this paper seeks to study students’ perceptions of digital escape room as an educational tool in learning reading skills. This study aims 1) to explore the students’ perceptions of digital escape room as an educational tool in learning English reading skills and 2) to discover the difference in the mean level of perceptions for differing genders and faculties. A quantitative study was carried out on 212 ESL tertiary students from three faculties. Data from questionnaires was tabulated and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). The findings revealed that students’ perceptions of the digital escape room in learning reading skills were optimistic. They viewed the escape room as fun, helpful and useful to be applied in other courses as well. It was also unveiled that there was no significant difference in gender or faculty among students who played the escape room. The results of this work provide empirical evidence that digital escape room can serve as a learning method in teaching English reading skills that can benefit students regardless of their gender and educational backgrounds.