An escape room game-based innovation for the assessment of physiotherapy students: A qualitative study

Background: Classic assessment methods present negative emotional alterations for students, such as stress, anxiety, fear and nervousness; these could be solved by applying the Escape Room, which is a promising tool where students experience positive emotions that are critical to learning. Aim: To explore the experiences and perceptions of physiotherapy students regarding the use of an Escape Room game-based model for their assessment in contrast to conventional approaches. Methods: A phenomenological-hermeneutical study was conducted. The assessment took place in two different modalities and on different days: 1) a traditional assessment method and 2) an assessment method incorporating a game-based model. All students participated in the two assessment processes. Fifty -six physiotherapy students took part in this study. Results: The detailed analysis of the results allowed us to classify them into two main themes: 1) Strengths of the Escape Room as part of an assessment approach and, 2) Weaknesses of the Escape Room as part of an assessment approach. In turn, from these main themes emerged the sub-themes and their different units of meaning. Conclusions: The results suggest that new teaching and assessment methodologies incorporating innovative models such as the Escape Room are effective in evaluating the skills and performance of physiotherapy students, which can be used to complement the traditional assessment methods.