Canvas Escape Room
A SME wanted an interactive and engaging assessment related to their subject matter, visual artists as activists.
I brainstormed with the SME and then developed a virtual escape room, and used the real-world experience of an internship in order for students to find the experience meaningful.
Downloadable Escape Room
PDF Resources
Project Screenshot Examples
The module setup for the Canvas virtual escape room looks different than a typical module - students must complete activities in order for the experience to work.
Included in the Canvas course for educators is a module walking through the steps of building your own virtual escape room.
Welcome to the Artists as Activists Show Escape Room! You will notice that this module looks a little bit different. If you're unfamiliar with a virtual escape room, the idea is that you will complete a mission by unlocking readings and assignments. Some of your assignments may look like puzzles or fill in the blanks, but they will all require you to interact with the content of the module. You MUST complete this module in order - pages and quizzes will not unlock until you read and/or do the activity.
Content for virtual escape room activity #1: You want to keep your internship, so you start examining the list of artists in your hand. First things first, you think, I’ll start with the top of the list. In order to move on to the next artist on your list, you will need to solve the activities on the next screen and answer the questions correctly to move on. Ai Weiwei is the first artist.
Content for virtual escape room activity #1: You begin researching Ai, and quickly discover he is a prolific artist with many pieces that offer social and political commentaries about the Chinese government. He was even arrested and detained at the Beijing Capital International Airport for his political activism! You decide to focus on two of his pieces: (1) Sunflower Seeds, and (2) Remembering from his art show So Sorry.
Virtual escape room activity #1: In order to move onto the next artist (and prove to your boss you can do it), you must answer the following fill in the blank questions. Information comes from 12.2: Appropriation and ideological critique in SmartHistory of Art. Quiz question 1 is written in a fill-in-the-blank format.
For this question, you must complete this Jigsaw about Ai's installation, Remembering. Visit it by clicking here (Links to an external site). You can also play it directly below! Once you have completed the jigsaw, the answer to this question will appear on the completed puzzle. Then, fill in the blank. Hint: I'm looking for the number and material.