Escape Rooms for Learning

Engage Educators in Memorable Professional Learning Experiences

Imagine…

your next conference: a professor searches the 8-foot tall spaceship, looking for first clue in week-long community building game.

your educator orientation: teachers & staff brainstorm wildly creative ideas to unlocking their table’s mystery box.

your webinar: an instructional designer outlines their first escape room for learning…by playing an escape room.

Why Escape Rooms?

Escape rooms designed for learning can help you:

host unique experiences and events that set you apart from other education organizations
engage participants and build community

create a foundation for collaborative work, innovation, and further learning, and
teach key ideas and cultivate skills/competencies

…But it takes time and multidisciplinary skills to create a good one. That’s where we come in!

Maddie Shellgren, Ph.D.

Schedule Your Free Escape Room Strategy Session

Laura Geringer, M.Ed.

Whether you’re looking for a custom done-for-you escape room or want to learn to build your own, we’ve got you covered!

Custom Escape Rooms

Help humans connect and set the foundation for collaboration and innovation.
- Tailored escape room experience
- Designed to advance one or more collaborative & problem solving competencies
- Designed for group play
- Hosted for you or by you - your choice
Advance highly specialized knowledge and competencies
- Fully customized, unique experience
- Created alongside subject matter experts
- Designed for individual play or teams
- Fully facilitated (done for you) or we’ll train your team to run it
Want to take your team or attendees behind the scenes? Let us explain the magic! Talking through the how and why of the escape room that participants have just experienced can deepen their learning, model playful & experiential learning, and invite attendees to be “in on it” with this unique experience.
This optional add-on is available with any escape room.

From simple learning games to grand-scale immersive experiences, We handle every aspect of your custom escape room – design, storytelling, puzzles, technology integration, and facilitation.

Learn to Build Escape Rooms

Learn how to design and build escape rooms for learning.
- Tiered training (from novice to experienced)
- Templates and resources to jumpstart your design
- Learn strategies for creating escape rooms from simple to complex
- Grounded in the foundations of playful, gameful, and experiential learning
Learn how to train your team on escape rooms for learning. Increase your org’s capacity and agency to design in the future.
- Training tailored to your organization’s structure and priorities
- Strategic scaffolding to help you scale escape room design expertise within your organization
- Reusable resources and templates to use with your team

Learn to build your own escape rooms through hands-on workshops or side-by-side creation with our team.

Examples

Building Cultural Competence

Three virtual asynchronous escape rooms to help high school language learners explore career options and build cultural competence.

OLC STARTALK E-SCAPE
Maddie and Laura played key roles in this grant-funded project, alongside a small team of designers and language experts.
Experience the escape rooms yourself for free or check out the creative commons-licensed Escape Room Starter Kit if you’re interested in building your own!

Exploring EdTech

An in-person escape room designed to introduce educators to innovative technologies, help them practice key edtech competencies, and network.

Picture Credit:
Maddie Shellgren / Online Learning Consortium

Starting as part of the Technology Test Kitchen at OLC Accelerate 2018, Maddie designed and facilitated the Online Learning Consortium’s first ever in-person escape room.

Setting the Stage for Collaboration

A virtual, synchronous, escape room hosted live at an innovation un-conference.

Maddie and Laura created and hosted a live virtual escape room designed to delight attendees and engage them in the world of Wicked Problems at the 2021 ShapingEDU Unconference. Explore the escape room or check out this recap article by our colleague, Stephanie King.

Facilitating Professional Development

A facilitated, virtual escape room designed to Train the Trainer on how to use escape rooms for professional development

Founded on research from Goblin, a decade-long gameful learning project, Maddie and two other colleagues designed this experience for a live, virtual learning session. Explore the escape room.

Free Escape Room Strategy Session

Ready to see how an escape room could work for your specific situation? Email Laura Geringer (laura@pumpkinberryconsulting.com) and Maddie Shellgren (mshellgren@gmail.com) to schedule a your Free Escape Room Strategy Session.