Digital escape rooms bring the excitement of hunting for clues and the joy of solving puzzles right to your student’s devices. Here are over 30 digital escape rooms to try plus resources for creating them yourself!
Digital escape rooms, also referred to as digital breakouts, are a great way to bring gameplay and problem solving to any lesson or unit. They can be an exciting and engaging activity for the whole class or as an option for early finishers.
In a spin on the popular Escape Room challenge, a digital version combines a virtual “room” (often a Google site) filled with clues that must be figured out in order to unlock a form (usually a Google form). They can be created around any theme and the locks can be easy or extremely difficult depending on the intended audience.
So how can we get started using digital escape rooms with our students? Where can we find pre-made games to share with our class? And what are the best tips and tools for creating them ourselves?
In our weekly #DitchBook Twitter chat (Thursdays at 7 p.m. PST / 8 p.m. MST / 9 p.m. CST / 10 p.m. EST), moderated by Mandi Tolen and Karly Moura, we discussed these questions and more. Participants shared tips and tools to get started along with tons of FREE resources.
Below you will find ideas for using escape rooms in your classroom, over 30 links to digital escape rooms you can use tomorrow!
Scroll down for a step by step guide to creating your own digital escape room by Mandi Tolen!
Want to try one out before you dive into using them with your students? Check out this Ditch that Textbook themed digital escape room created by Mandi and Karly and see if you can break free from Ditch That Textbook headquarters!
There is a special badge waiting for you at the end. Share it with us on Twitter using the #Ditchbook hashtag.
6 ideas for using digital escape rooms in your classroom
- vocabulary review
- holiday activities
- frontloading activities
- teaching digital citizenship
- reviewing content
- reinforcing logic and reasoning skills
30+ digital escape rooms to try with your class
The #ditchbook community also shared their favorite digital escape rooms and we curated them all for you! Use the arrows in the embedded collection below to scroll through or click here for over 30 digital escape rooms already created and ready to use with your class.
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How to create a digital escape room for your class or PD
How to create a digital escape room for your class or PD is written by Mandi Tolen a math teacher from Missouri. You can connect with her on Twitter @MandiTolenEDU and check out her blog infinitelyteaching.com
Escape rooms are a fun adventure where you solve puzzles to escape from the room. To add to the adventure, you usually have a time limit. I love creating physical escape rooms in my classroom. They are fun and they get the students up and moving in the classroom.
However, there are a few drawbacks to physical escape rooms.
I have large classes, so usually I need two sets running at the same time. Even with two escape room sets, not everyone will solve every clue.
My solution, digital escape rooms.
Even in a class of 30, students can work individually or in pairs and they have the opportunity to solve every problem in the escape room. This makes them great for introductions to units or a review at the end.
Before you move on try this Tech or Treat Digital Escape Room first. After you escape, take a look at how I created it to help you learn how to create your own!
At first glance, digital escape rooms (also called digital breakouts or digital breakouts) look daunting to create. Hopefully, this post will show you that in just a few steps, you can create your own digital escape room!
We have also created a planning template for you (or even your students) to use to make a digital escape room!
Click here to make a copy of this FREE digital escape room planning template.
Now you’re ready to get started.
Check out these step by step instructions to make your own digital escape room!
1. Write your prompt
You need a good story to hook the audience. When you go to a physical escape room, they set up the situation with a story or information at the beginning. The purpose of this Halloween themed digital escape room was to share some tech ideas with my staff in a fun way.
So I wrote an introduction to tell my audience what was happening:
“Double, double, toil and trouble. I’ve dropped the keys to my broom in the bubbles. If I don’t find them, the keys will dissolve, but you can help me with riddles to solve. Click around, don’t be scared. I won’t turn you into a frog, but maybe a bear.”
2. Create your clues
Determine how many and what kind (number, word, etc.) of clues you want. Since I created a technology breakout, I knew my clues should lead people to (hopefully) new technology ideas. So I started brainstorming.
During this step, I also created all of my clues. Some are in Google Slides, Docs, Jigsaw Planet, etc. I keep all of these in a folder in my Google Drive so everything is together.
Here are the clues I used for my Halloween themed digital escape room:
- To introduce Wakelet – a link will take teachers to my public Wakelet profile so they can see the boards I have created and share. CLUE: WAKELET
- To show Google Translate in a Doc – a link will take teachers to a doc in another language but with an animation that shows them how to translate the doc. The translation will give them the clue. CLUE: SWEET
- To introduce genia.ly – a link will take teachers to a created Genial.ly presentation. The clue will be included in the presentation. CLUE: 1031
- To show a fun Google Search Atari Breakout – Create a puzzle at jigsawplanet.com and when put together, it has instructions on how to search Atari Breakout. CLUE: ATARI
- To introduce “hidden word” in slides: a link will go to a slide where you move the magnifying glass to see the clue. It will also go to a blog post on how to create your own. CLUE: MAG10
- Distraction/fake clue – one link will go to a fake iPhone message talking about Slidesmania
- Distraction/fake clue – one link will go to an animated gif of a bubbling cauldron
Here is a Wakelet collection with even more clue making resources.
3. Create your image(s)
I almost always have an interactive image that I create in Google Drawing. We plan to put all of this in a Google Site at the end, and you can easily import a Google Drawing and keep the “hotspots” active this way.
Open a new Google Drawing and start creating your scene. It can be as easy as a single image (the reindeer in this Reindeer Games digital escape room), or as fancy as a full scene (like the image below).
Once your image is created, you need to link your clues to each object. I have 5 clues, so I linked it to the window, broom, cat, book, cauldron, and one of the flasks.
You can make anything you added to your image clickable as a link! To do that: First, click on the object you want to link (in the example, I clicked on the window), then click on the link button and paste the link to the clue. Continue this process until you link to all of your clues.
Some breakouts may have more than one image. In my trianglesonly.com breakout game, I had multiple pages on the side, so I repeated the process for each image I created.
4. Create your locks
This step uses Google Forms. Create a new Google Form (I keep everything for each escape room in one folder). You want to use response validation (check out this video for a walkthrough on how to add it) so they have to type in the correct clue. You also want to make the question required.
For number locks, I use the number is equal to setting then type in the number you want. You can also type in a custom response if they get it wrong. For a number, I usually just use “try again”.
For letter locks, you will select text contains. Forms are case sensitive so my clue usually directs them to capital or lowercase letters.
Continue this process until you have all of your clues entered.
I like to include a special message or image once the person “escapes”. To do this, create a new section in your Google Form.
On this new page, you can post a message or an image congratulating them on escaping.
5. Create your Google site
In my opinion, this is the most exciting part of the process. This is when everything you have created comes together as an escape room.
Go to sites.google.com and click the plus sign in the bottom right corner.
You will get this page to start with. Title your site so you can come back to it later. You can change your theme, colors, and fonts on the right side. Play with it until you have exactly what you want.
I inserted a text box and added the introduction that I wrote earlier.
Next, I inserted the Google Drawing using the insert from Drive button.
You can use the corners and drag your image to be as large as you want. I do the same for the Google Form. Sometimes I position them side-by-side, other times I position them with the Form below the image. Use whatever works for you and the image(s) you have created.
When you are ready, hit the publish button. Don’t forget to go through the Escape Room yourself and make sure everything works as you want. You can click the link button at the top right on the toolbar and get a code that you can share. When I create these for students, I post that link in Google Classroom.
That’s it! Now you’re ready to get started creating your very own digital escape room. Please share any games you create with us using the #Ditchbook hashtag.
Bonus Halloween Haunt digital escape room for your students to try!
Get your students in on the fun with this Halloween themed digital escape room created by Karly Moura. It’s meant to be a less challenging game for younger students, those new to digital escape rooms, or for a short time filler.
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[…] 30+ digital escape rooms (plus tips and tools for creating your own) […]
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I’m very interested in using your American Revolution Escape Room…however, are there any answer keys for teachers??
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Thank you for the examples! I escaped!!! I was wondering, how did you get your background for the “Ditch the Textbook” Image….the floor and wall? I’m trying to create my first one, and am just learning. Thank you 🙂
The links to the examples don’t work. I am having a hard time following. Can you do a video?
I really like your confessions topic about escape room tips & I think this will more useful for all. I have already visited “ESCAPE FOLSOM” so I have a better experience with this. Really, I must say this escape room is so interesting with the fantastic game which makes people happier.
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This is a wonderful resource. I have referred to it often as I’ve been tasked with creating a PD virtual escape room. Thank you for sharing it. A couple of questions:
What did you use to create the animation for “google translate” and how did you attach the link so as a participant trying to solve your “Tech or Treat” Escape room, so I could move the magnifying glass to reveal the answer?
I have created an end of the year digital escape room to use with my students. I have a google site set up with links to google doc activities, a magic square like you have in the Halloween ; My problem comes when my colleague tries them as a student in my demo classroom, she gets the message access denied. When I shared each activity, you can only view them. Some require things to be moved. I feel like I am missing some setting. How did you get it to make a copy when i clicked on the link for the Halloween one? I think that is what I am missing.
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