DRONEscape: Designing an Educational Escape Room for Adult AI Literacy

Escape rooms have become increasingly popular as a form of entertainment, in addition to being adopted by educators for their effectiveness in improving student engagement and learning. While they have been introduced in various educational contexts, from nursing to mathematics, and for different age groups, including K-12 and university students, little research has been conducted on the benefits of escape rooms for adult learning of artificial intelligence (AI). Furthermore, most escape room implementations lack relevance to real-world situations and challenges with using AI systems in the wild. This study explores the effectiveness of an escape room, DRONEscape, as a tool for teaching AI concepts to Air Force participants. The results suggest that escape rooms can most effectively facilitate engagement and collaboration, and have positive effects on learning AI concepts. This paper also provides considerations for improvements to future iterations of AI-themed escape rooms to enhance learning, collaboration, engagement, and enjoyment.