Tutorial:

Escape Room

Kerri the COTA’s tutorial of

How to Make an “Escape Room”

And Other Google Form Activities

Have you been seeing posts about “OT Escape Rooms” or “Virtual Choose Your Own Adventure Activities” being shared on your Facebook groups, Instagram or pediatric blogs? Do you want to start making your own but you’re just not sure where to start?

When I first learned I would be providing virtual telehealth to my kiddos, I barely even knew where to begin. However, I was quickly amazed by the adaptability and creativity of my community. Add Google forms to your OT toolbox with the rest of your telehealth ideas!

These activities are perfect for your pediatric therapy sessions to increase engagement and participation of your students or clients. You can use this program to practice fine motor skills, engage in gross motor movements, or practice visual perceptual skills. It all depends on how you use it!

In this tutorial I will show you the basics of how to make an “Escape Room”, how to be creative and spruce up your activity, and different ways you can utilize these skills for your teletherapy sessions. I've also included some tips and tricks at the end to spice up your Google Form Activity!

Open Google Forms

Create Your Activity

Assigning Your Questions

Sharing Your Activity

Quick Tips and Tricks

Let’s get started!

First, you’ll need to have a Google account. If you use Google Chrome, you probably have a Google account already.

If you don't have a Google account, I definitely recommend making one! There are so many useful programs you can use that will enhance your teletherapy sessions, like Google Calendar, Docs, Slides, and more.

I also recommend having a rough draft of what you want your activity to look like - especially if you are doing a Choose Your Own Adventure. A flowchart really helps to organize the direction of your choices. Try sketching out the basics of what you want your activity looking like, regarding what skills you're working on, what theme you want, and any other details.

Open Google Forms

To create your Google Form activity, first open Google Forms. Select the blue button on the left that says “Go to Google Forms”.

This will bring you to your homepage of all possible Google forms. On the top row, there is a list of possible templates you can choose from. Click the white square with a plus sign all the way on the left to open your new Google Form.

Create Your Activity

Write the title of your activity at the top. I try to pick short, easy titles like “OT Zoo” or “Summer Fun”. In the first section, I write what the focus of the activity is, whether it’s “figure-ground discrimination” or “Relaxation Techniques”.To make another section, click on the two rectangular boxes at the bottom of the bar on the right.

Explanation of icons

Next, click the image icon to add a photo to the new section. You can drag-and-drop photos from your folder to the page to add the photo or you can choose from your files. GIFs also work here!

If you want to require an answer before moving forward, make sure you turn the “required” toggle on.

Image icon

Question icon

At this point, add a question to the section. Do this by clicking the circle with a plus sign at the top of the bar.

When you begin writing your question, Google will automatically make a suggestion as to what kind of answers you’re looking for, whether it’s multiple choice, or short answers. For the most part, you’re going to want to choose “Multiple Choice”.

Change the title for each of the answers to whichever answer you want. You can also click on the image icon next to the answer if you want to select a photo for that answer. Google Forms also allows you to use GIFs in your answers.

Assigning Your Questions

Select the 3 dot icon to the right of the “required” toggle and select “Go to section based on answer”. This will enable you to have right and wrong answers. If you’d like, you can also select “shuffle option order”.

At the top right of the section, select “Duplicate section”. Turn this duplicate into the “wrong answer” page. Just change the title name so you can keep track of the sections.

So now you have one section for the question and one for when the student chooses a wrong answer. Make a new section for the right answer. You can make this section include an image that says something like “You got it! He wants cookies!”

Now go back and assign where you want each answer to take you, depending on if it's right or wrong.

It should look a bit like this.

Alternatively, if you’re making a Choose Your Own Adventure activity, there are no wrong answers! Each question should decide where your student goes in the story. For example, one answer would say “Run to the playground” while another would say “Jump in the pool”. Then make the answers take you to the correct next section of your activity.

Repeat this process until your activity is complete!

If you’re done with your activity or just want to check your progress, click on the eyeball icon on the top right of the page.

preview icon

Sharing Your Activity

Good job finishing your activity! The hard work is over. There are two different ways you can share it with your clients, students, or fellow therapists.

First, after clicking the eyeball icon to preview your activity, copy the URL of this new page. Send it to your student and they can now complete it! Alternatively, you can open the activity, start your Zoom session and initiate screen sharing. Provide remote control to your student so they can select the answers. If remote control isn’t possible, you can dictate for your student.

If you are sharing your activity with other educators or therapists who want to make a copy of your activity, there are a few more steps involved.

Select the 3 dot icon on the top right corner, then click on “add collaborators”. A pop-up will appear regarding the access of your form. If you want to allow other people to edit your form, you can change the restrictions here.

Copy the link for your activity. It’s a long URL that should end with “/edit?usp=sharing”. Highlight and erase the word “edit” and change it to “copy”. Now copy the full URL. This URL will take the individual to a page that prompts them to make a copy of your activity. That way they can track their own responses or make edits they want to make without altering your copy.

Quick Tips and Tricks

What’s the best length? In my experience, an effective length for an OT Escape Room is anywhere from 20 to 30 sections. Mine tend to have 3 questions each in 3 different categories, for a total of 9 questions. This length helps to maintain their participation throughout the entirety of the activity without them getting bored or distracted. But it’s still long enough to test their attention and patience!

Have a theme! Is your activity going to be based on pirates? Animals? Space? Themes help to increase engagement. This also means to have a cohesive theme on what skills you’re working on. If you’re working on visual motor skills, try to find 3 different ways to work on these skills.

Customize your activity. Change the color of your activity by clicking the palette icon on the top right. From here, you can add a Header, change the theme color, background color and font. I like for each of my activities to have different colors so they're easy to navigate through!

Keep it creative! Spend some time playing around with this program to explore all the different ways you can use it. Look up other people's escape rooms to see how they use it. Be inspired!

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