Breakout Rooms
Breakout rooms are all the rage among students today! They are fairly easy to create and don't require many supplies such as locks, boxes, or maps like physical escape rooms require.
The information below details steps for creating a digital escape room using Google Forms. For more ideas, click the button below!
1️⃣ Select A Skills Focus
Just like with every assignment you create, the first step is to begin with the end in mind and decide which skills you would like to assess using the escape room. This will help focus the tasks you create to open each lock.
Think about using quizzes you’ve already created and bundling them together to create the various tasks of the escape room.
Once you’ve selected your targeted skill(s), then you will need to create 4-5 challenges. Keep in mind that these activities need to be short enough that students can complete them in a timely manner. It's recommended to have students complete the escape room in class as collaborative groups to add in the element of class competition; however, you can also have students complete the escape room as a homework assignment if needed.
2️⃣ Create the Tasks
Again, begin with the end in mind and create the four or five tasks that you will have students complete.
At this phase in the process, do not worry so much about the keys to open the locks. Just simply create tasks that will target the skills you would like to target.
Be sure to vary the types of activities so that students are challenged in different ways as they move through the escape room.
3️⃣ Come Up with a Story
This is where you get to be CREATIVE! Come up with a story that grants a purpose to the challenge of the escape room activity. For example, one escape room can be turned into a Super Mario Brothers’ theme in which students have to defeat five villains (including Wario, of course!) in order to help Princess Peach escape the evil clutches of Bowser.
You can make up all kinds of storylines just like video games… something like a story about a treasure that needs to be found, or something like a group of people who are stranded on a deserted island and need to be rescued. You can even make them more literal escape rooms and put the “groups” into a haunted mansion or haunted hotel, and they need to escape the zombies without being bitten. Be creative and enjoy the process of creating a story that fits your personality and students’ interests.
At the end of the escape room, you can decide if you’d like to give a prize to students (or not) and if you would like for that prize to somehow thematically relate to the story you’ve created. For example, if you do a treasure map story, you can give the winning group a bundle of golden chocolate coins as a prize. Or you can keep it simple give bonus points or candy to the winning group.
It's recommended that you start out simple and then can work on sophistication and creativity as you gain more experience with the process.
4️⃣ Passwords & Locks
Before we get to the technicalities of creating the Google Form, you first need to come up with special codes for each puzzle that will unlock each lock. These codes can include anything you want— numbers, letters, words, symbols, etc. If you have a matching exercise as one of the puzzles, you can instruct students to take the first letter of each matched word to create the code (see Image 1 below).
Alternatively, you can create riddles to go along with a puzzle that students have to decipher in order to come up with the code (see Image 2 below).
Alternatively, you can have students complete a cloze passage, and use the answers to create a code (see Image 3 below).
It's recommend to use different strategies to come up with the codes across the puzzles to keep the game challenging and interesting for students. Be sure to include clearly written directions on each puzzle so that students know how to complete each task and also how to decipher each code. This is SUPER important! As students work through the escape room, they might find some issues with needing more instructions. Be open to refining your escape room and using students’ suggestions to make it even better!
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
5️⃣ Let's Get Technical - Time to Create
After you have created your 4-5 challenges/ puzzles and come up with a theme plus passwords, it is time to take it over to Google Forms.
1. Create the Google Form
Go to forms.google.com and create a new form by selecting the plus sign.
2. Title the Form
Click in the white form box at the top where it says Untitled Form. By typing in your title, it will automatically also title the form with the same name in the upper left-hand corner.
3. Add the Form Description
Next, you will tell the creative “story” of your challenge where it says “Form Description.” This is where you will give your students any details or instructions they may need to complete the escape room. The picture to the left is an example.
4. Create the puzzles or "Locks"
Now, you are ready to put in the information for each puzzle and “lock.” Begin by selecting the question type want your students to answer with.
Change the answer type by clicking on the drop-down menu to the right of the description or question. Select the desired question type.
⭐ For questions where you wish students to input a code (the most popular type for breakout rooms - like in the example,) you will want to select a Short Answer question type so that students can type in their response. You will also want to turn on description and response validation from the options in the three dots that appear in the bottom right corner of the question tile. You will want to put a checkmark beside both items to turn them on. Additionally, you will also want to turn on the “required” button to require that students answer the question. This button is located next to the three dots that you just selected.
5. Setting the Codes
In order to input the code, change the drop-down menu on the left where it says “number” to “text.” Then change the drop-down menu that says “greater than” to “contains.”
After that, you will type in the code that will open the lock. Be sure to check, check, and triple check that you have entered the code correctly, or students will not be able to advance in the escape room to the next puzzle.
Finally, add in “custom error text.” This is the text that will show whenever students input the incorrect code. You can make this say anything you’d like from “Oh NO! Try again” to something more specific that fits your escape room story such as “Bowser has bashed you again!” for a Mario themed breakout room.
6. Add A New Section and Repeate the Process!
Now that you have completed your first entry, select the equal sign on the bottom of the vertical menu on the right-hand side of the form. This button allows you to add a new section. This is the same button you will use repeatedly to add new sections, or puzzle questions, to your escape room.
After each question, you will want to add a new section and then select the photo icon, which is the fourth one from the top on that same menu. This will enable you to add a photo that students will see after they have unlocked a question, or gotten a puzzle code correct.
In the case of the ongoing example for Literary Devices, these photos consist of pictures of the villains the students have just “defeated.” An example is shown to the right.
After you insert the photograph, you will select the equal sign again to add a new section. For this new section, you will input the information for the second puzzle and the second code using the same steps from above.
Then, you will input a new section with another photo. Essentially, you will go back-and-forth between puzzle clues/ codes and images— each one has to be a new REQUIRED section so that students will be cued to move through the escape room in sequence.
Once they have reached the end, you can give them some kind of victory image that lets them know that they have successfully “escaped” or “unlocked” all of the puzzles.
