Hide and Seek in Gamified Learning: Formative Assessment of ESP in Digital Escape Rooms
Hide and Seek in Gamified Learning: Formative Assessment of ESP in Digital Escape Rooms

Summary/Abstract: The assessment of language skills in the current online learning format entangles a complex process of also evaluating multiple competences and abilities (digital, literacy, visual, technological). If the digitalization of learning processes has become a stringent need nowadays, educators must also focus on adapting the mechanism of evaluation so as to be more inclusive, engaging and flexible. Gamification appears to be one potentially suitable instrument of delivering both teaching and assessment methods to learners who are coping more and more with disengagement and the lack of interaction. Digital escape rooms, as a complex version of gamified activities in ESP classes, provide a valid alternative to facilitating learning and assessment, while also granting learners the stimuli to make practical use of the acquired language (and soft) skills in customized and interactive problemsolving contexts. More than boosting motivation among students and extending autonomy through selfassessment and collaborative work, digital escape rooms can still be considered trailblazers in the field of higher education ES(A)P teaching and learning. Exploring the conundrums of these digital instruments, with both opportunities and challenges that might occur, can serve the purpose of understanding how gamification can support the pursuit of language skill acquisition, while for teachers, it can pave the way for organizing instructional and assessment content in a user-friendly format.

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