ECGBL 2026 Pre-Conference Workshop

Wednesday 30 September 2026
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

09:00-17:00 – Educational Escape Room Workshop

Led by: Panagiotis Fotaris, University of Brighton, UK

Escape rooms are dynamic, team-based games where players collaborate to uncover clues, solve puzzles, and complete tasks within a set time limit to achieve a defined goal. Widely enjoyed by individuals of all ages, escape rooms are increasingly recognized in educational settings for their ability to merge compelling storytelling  with engaging gameplay. This integration not only fosters deep immersion but also significantly boosts motivation and engagement, thereby enhancing learning outcomes. Recent studies confirm the effectiveness of educational escape games in promoting active and successful learning experiences.
This interactive workshop offers comprehensive, hands-on training on how to conceptualise, design, execute, and evaluate educational escape rooms. Participants will emerge from the workshop equipped with the skills to create a prototype of an educational escape room, tailored for use in their own educational settings.

Workshop Objectives:

1. Explore Fundamental Concepts: Engage with both tabletop and digital escape rooms to understand
the foundational elements and mechanics of escape room design.
2. Develop Design Insight: Gain a thorough understanding of the types of puzzles, themes, and narrative challenges commonly employed in escape rooms and how these can be effectively adapted for educational purposes.
3. Critique and Conceptualise: Learn to critically evaluate the educational potential of escape rooms, identifying how they can be integrated into curriculum to enhance learning and engagement.
4. Apply Design Thinking: Utilise Room2Educ8, a Design Thinking framework, to guide the development, implementation, and testing of an educational escape room prototype, ensuring it is both engaging and pedagogically sound.
5. Innovate with AI Tools: Master prompt engineering techniques and utilise a prompt library to create compelling content and resources for escape rooms using advanced generative AI tools.
Expected Outcomes:
By the conclusion of this workshop, participants will have not only experienced the thrill of escape room gameplay but also designed and playtested their own educational escape room prototype. This prototype will serve as a practical and innovative tool to captivate and educate students, embodying the principles of
immersive learning through play.
Workshop Application details
The workshop will be held on Wednesday 30th September 2026 at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. The attendance fee for the workshop is £60. To book a place please go to:
https://www.academic-conferences.org/conferences/ecgbl/ecgbl-registration/ and for more information
please email afua@academic-conferences.org
See more about ECGBL at http://www.academic-conferences.org/conferences/ecgb

Workshop Facilitator

Dr Panagiotis Fotaris is a Principal Lecturer at the University of Brighton where he teaches Game Design, Narrative Design, and Design Thinking. He has previously held posts at King’s College London, the University of East London, the University of West London, and Abertay University. A game-based learning evangelist with a diverse background that combines computing with applied arts, games, and music, Panagiotis focuses his research on the pedagogic potential of escape rooms and generative AI in the context of Higher education.
Additionally, he contributes to the global academic community as a scientific evaluator for the European Research Executive Agency of the European Commission, assessing project proposals under the “Arts and cultural awareness and expression in education and training” theme of Horizon Europe. When not playing
point-and-click adventure games, making AI-assisted indie rock songs, or producing mashups and music podcasts, Panagiotis designs educational escape rooms for cybersecurity awareness training and information literacy.