HIV-themed escape room and impact on learning among undergraduate pharmacy students in a game-naïve university
1
Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Management, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu, Nigeria, Nigeria
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Escape rooms are immersive learning environments that encourage problem-solving and teamwork to promote learning. Despite the extensive research and literature on escape rooms in education, none has been done in Africa prior to this study. This study aims to evaluate the acceptability of an HIV-themed escape room activity and the perceived impact on the learning outcomes, and knowledge of HIV management, among pharmacy students at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
METHODS:
The study was conducted in three different HIV-themed escape rooms designed at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), involving 36 final-year pharmacy students. The escape room activity was carried out in groups of six students, and data were collected from the participants after the activity using a 14-item questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into three sections: socio-demographics, perception and acceptability, and feedback. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data, with the significance level set at p ≤ 0.05.
RESULTS:
More than half of the participants 20 (55.6%) were between the ages of 20-24 years out of which a larger percentage 22 (61.1%) were females. Gender (p = 0.032) and academic performance (p = 0.0024) were significantly associated with the likelihood to recommend the game, and improvement in critical thinking skills, respectively. All teams were able to escape the room with the shortest and longest escape times recorded as 9.51 and 19.56 minutes, respectively. More than the majority of the participants 34 (94.4%) agreed or strongly agreed that the escape room activity impacted their learning.
CONCLUSIONS:
Overall, the participants had a positive perception of the escape room. Finally, the escape room activity had a positive self-reported impact on the learning of HIV pharmacotherapy among the participants, showing potential as an innovative way of teaching.
Escape rooms are immersive learning environments that encourage problem-solving and teamwork to promote learning. Despite the extensive research and literature on escape rooms in education, none has been done in Africa prior to this study. This study aims to evaluate the acceptability of an HIV-themed escape room activity and the perceived impact on the learning outcomes, and knowledge of HIV management, among pharmacy students at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
METHODS:
The study was conducted in three different HIV-themed escape rooms designed at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), involving 36 final-year pharmacy students. The escape room activity was carried out in groups of six students, and data were collected from the participants after the activity using a 14-item questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into three sections: socio-demographics, perception and acceptability, and feedback. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data, with the significance level set at p ≤ 0.05.
RESULTS:
More than half of the participants 20 (55.6%) were between the ages of 20-24 years out of which a larger percentage 22 (61.1%) were females. Gender (p = 0.032) and academic performance (p = 0.0024) were significantly associated with the likelihood to recommend the game, and improvement in critical thinking skills, respectively. All teams were able to escape the room with the shortest and longest escape times recorded as 9.51 and 19.56 minutes, respectively. More than the majority of the participants 34 (94.4%) agreed or strongly agreed that the escape room activity impacted their learning.
CONCLUSIONS:
Overall, the participants had a positive perception of the escape room. Finally, the escape room activity had a positive self-reported impact on the learning of HIV pharmacotherapy among the participants, showing potential as an innovative way of teaching.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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