Power Leadership Development through Escape Games | Dr. Rachel Arpin
Traditional leadership training often relies on slide presentations and theoretical discussions, but what if leaders could develop critical social, emotional, and even spiritual skills through immersive, hands-on experiences? According to Dr. Rachel Arpin, escape games designed for leadership development are emerging as a powerful tool for creating complex leadership competencies, offering a unique approach that combines structured skill development with engaging gameplay.
The Leadership Development Challenge
Leadership development requires more than procedural knowledge—it demands the cultivation of higher-order thinking skills, such as strategic decision-making, delegation, and inclusive mindset development. Unlike technical training that follows step-by-step processes, leadership skills emerge from navigating complicated, nuanced social situations that require both analytical thinking and emotional intelligence.
Escape games excel in this space because they simulate the complexity leaders face daily. When presented with multiple simultaneous challenges, participants naturally engage in the kind of strategic thinking and collaborative problem-solving that defines effective leadership. The question isn't whether to tackle each puzzle individually or divide and conquer—it's about recognizing that this decision-making process itself becomes a leadership learning & exploration opportunity.
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MAGICademy Podcast (00:00)
It's a safe place to fail. I get it wrong. I get to learn and try again. How many times in Super Mario Bros. or some video game did we fall into the cliff? Have to start all over again. And we're gonna get it next time, right? This theme and narrative plays a really important part in why am I doing this? And helps people to be able to step out of their reality and try something a little bit differently because it's safe to do that ⁓ here. There's a challenge you have to solve.
Like a lock, there's a lock in a box and it's a four digit combination. Actions, what do you do to figure out the combination to the lock? So you're searching things, maybe you have to solve something over there. You're looking for information that helps you know what the code is. And then you put it into the lock, your reward, that satisfying click, when the lock opens up. And then how do you connect all of those challenge action rewards together?
Like we run into this dragon, we imagine it to be this like fierce, you know, person killing, fire breathing, whatever, and no, they're just a little book dragon. They just wanna cuddle and read books, but you don't know that upfront.
Jiani (01:12)
we've talked about Dr. Rachel's story and why she decided to pick the specialization in escape games and why combining that with leadership. And we talked about key framework, design framework for a intriguing escape game for
busy adults and we explored, we actually did a live exploration about how we can design a game using that framework to help people.
be aware of their implicit bias, rather than going through a slide deck, there's a game that they can go through. And then we also talked about the future of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, specifically augmented reality, where we're able to bring that simulation into the real world, and that immediately transform an environment and bring people immediately into the story. So we also talked about...
the potential risks and challenges and trustability of AI and how that could be a gap that future developers can look into and help people solve particular problems so we can use that in a more specific situation.
Welcome to MAGICademy podcast. Today with us is Dr. Rachel. She's experts in leadership escape game development. And she has been developing countless leadership games, escape games for a long, long, long time, decades. So we are honored to have her with us. We will explore what is leadership games.
escape games, how to design a great escape games and what are some impacts? What are some guardrails? How does AI and virtual reality play a role in the future? And welcome Dr. Rachel to our podcast.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (03:08)
Thanks for having me. When you say decades, it makes me feel old though, I'm telling ya.
Jiani (03:12)
That
means we have a lot of experiences under our belt. And I think sometimes the world has a weird way of associating times with like age. And I think in the future, I think time is just... Times is important. Age is irrelevant. Yeah, we always love pick an age that you would prefer.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (03:17)
There we go, wisdom.
I like that.
People say I usually act like I'm 12, so...
Jiani (03:37)
That's the magic, right?
Yeah, yeah, make time our friends, not enemies. Beautiful.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (03:43)
There we go.
Jiani (03:46)
What was the first escape games that you played that really got you interested?
Dr. Rachel Arpin (03:52)
So that one that was back in 2015, the funny thing is I don't like scary stuff and this was a scary room. So I don't know why I wasn't turned off by it. But it was, you walked into a space and it was like a living room and then there were all these different puzzles that you had to solve. And I thought, wow, this is a really small, how are we gonna spend an hour in this really tiny space? And then we found a key and it unlocked to another room.
So then it was like this bedroom and there was an actor in there that we found. But it was kind of like a, I don't know, like a gory horror storyline. But my favorite story, the whole finding out I'm bad at math was there was some kind of algebra, like basic math problem. And I'm at the whiteboard that was in the room trying to figure it out. And the actor was just like, bad math, bad math. And I'm like, okay.
Jiani (04:44)
You
Dr. Rachel Arpin (04:45)
Someone else, can you solve this for me?
My daughter loves that story because when we're in escape games together, she's the one that does the math problems. If there's ever one.
Jiani (04:54)
That's great. Yeah, I would
imagine if I were in the escape game and they have to do math, I'll probably pass that to my teammate. This is not my forte.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (05:04)
But that's one of the key things.
Yeah, that's one of the things that I love about escape games. If you're not strong in something, you rely on your team to help fill in the gap. You ask for help or someone says, hey, I see you're struggling with that. Can I step in and help? And that's an important team dynamic. So that's one of the things I like about escape games.
Jiani (05:21)
I love it. Yeah, it feels like a lot of times in an ordinary life, there's just not a lot of carefully curated experiences to help you to...
build specific skills or solicit specific behaviors or mindset. And when you have that escape games, you kind of like building the environment, you're building scenarios and triggers, friendly triggers, I hope, and situations where people get to experience life in an alternative universe.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (05:59)
Yeah, and so it's funny. I have a client that we joke around about, you know, if the customer's not buying it as a game, pitch it as a simulation, because it is. It's a simulation of an environment. And so as you were saying that, I was thinking what you're talking about is essentially a simulation and behind the scenes, we know it's an escape game.
Jiani (06:11)
Thank you.
It is.
Is there any differences between escape game and simulation? Escape games can be a format of simulations. What's your take on that?
Dr. Rachel Arpin (06:41)
Yeah, so I'm going to zoom way out. So a simulation is essentially creating an environment that replicates something else, right? So you use simulation in medical school to simulate a patient experience. And a lot of times they'll be like mannequins that the nursing students or the doctor students or residents or whatever will go in and perform their clinical stuff in these simulated environments. And you can simulate pressure, time,
different types of emergencies. And so what that does is it gets people to be able to perform what's expected of them outside of the actual real environment, right? So it's an opportunity to practice. The way that I see that escape games fit into that would be maybe it's not a, if the procedure is one through five steps, right? A simulation would say, are you doing one through five steps correctly, accurately every time?
Jiani (07:22)
I know.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (07:39)
And can you learn from that? An escape game will have you solving puzzles and challenges to get you thinking about a different environment. I can give you an example. So let's say we wanted to simulate some of the different kinds of leadership skills. Like delegation is one that comes to mind. To simulate the ability to think through delegation, maybe what I do as a game designer is I give you...
four puzzles that you can solve all at once. Now, do you as a team tackle each one individual puzzle as a unit, or do you divide and conquer? Do you delegate and you get your four done faster? And so that's a way to be able to simulate some of those maybe conceptual parts of leadership, or you can take that to any kind of concept training, whatever. If it's conceptual, sometimes you can build puzzles to dig into those.
to simulate those types of experiences as opposed to step one, step two, step three, you're demonstrating you can do a task.
Jiani (08:39)
I like that. So simulation in a traditional way, it's more kind of teach and learn and as accurate as possible, usually procedural based, because I see a lot of simulation in like nursing, manufacturing. So it's very reality based because when people think about simulation, they usually want people to do dangerous things in a safe environment. So simulation is perfect for that healthcare manufacturing.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (09:03)
Yep. Yes.
Jiani (09:07)
Escape game, you kind of build a situation where people are able to practice higher order thinking like strategic thinking, delegation, as it relates to specifically leadership. Because in a leadership, it's like you're dealing with all sorts of situations. So it's not necessarily to be dangerous, it's just complicated. So we're actually dealing with complication through escape games. Beautiful.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (09:30)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Jiani (09:34)
I
like that, I like that. And in a good kind of simulation, I'm getting mixed, in a good escape game for leadership, what are some key elements or core building structures for when we develop such a good, engaging and outcome driven escape games for leaders?
Dr. Rachel Arpin (09:43)
⁓
Yeah.
Well, and what you said right there is really key to start with the outcomes. If I'm going to put a disclaimer out there, games for the sake of fun are wonderful. Games for fun sake is great. Everything that I'm going to say generally is going to be games for the purpose of trying to teach
so knowing what those outcomes are, what do you want people to do?
after they're done playing your game. It's the same question we ask when we do instructional design. What do you want people to do after they experience their learning event? So after they play the game, a good definition of what should they be doing or thinking about differently or reflecting on differently. And then the game becomes a wrapper around that.
I usually get on my soapbox about that when I present at this at conferences, like focus on the outcomes, that is the core, and then everything else wraps around that. Another, I'd say, kind of component of designing a learning escape game is being able to think through, okay, so then now that I know what the outcomes are, what do I do next? How do I take this from being just a learning event to an escape game?
event. And I have a framework that I've been putting out there and refining over time, but there's two sides to it. There's an education side and there's an escape game side. And the education side for instructional designers, it'll sound really familiar. You have your objectives that you're trying to accomplish. What do they do when they're done? The verb based demonstrable objectives. And then you use a work breakdown structure. So in order to be able to demonstrate that I can do
this, here's the things that I have to do. And that helps kind of bridge that gap also with that simulation and escape game piece. Because if I want someone to be able to accurately demonstrate that they can access a certain part of a website, let's say, to be able to get to that website, what are the steps to get there or to get to that page or to get that information?
Or once they have it, what do they do with it? That work breakdown structure helps me have a very tactical view on that progression, which becomes important later on when we start talking about puzzles. And then the last part of the education side is the assessment. So not only did they do it, but how do we know that they did it right? And so all of that's going to be very familiar for most instructional designers pulling together any kind of learning experience. On the escape game side,
starts looking at first theme and narrative. So what story are you going to put them into? Theme and narrative plays a really important part in why am I doing this and helps people to be able to step out of their reality and be willing to do things that like.
this is my job, I gotta do my job. Well, no, here, let's take you into a new environment and try something a little bit differently because it's safe to do that here. A theme and narrative can do that. Another part of that is I call it CAR. It's an adaptation off of something that I read way back in 2015. Weimkir is one of the authors on the article, but I adapted it a little bit where it's challenge, action, reward. And I call that the building bricks of
Jiani (13:14)
Hmm.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (13:34)
an escape game. Challenge, action, reward. There's a challenge you have to solve like a lock. There's a lock in a box and it's a four digit combination. A is actions. What do you do to figure out the combination to the lock? So you're searching things. Maybe you have to solve something over there. You're looking for information that helps you know what the code is. And then you put it into the lock. Your reward, that satisfying clink, when the lock opens up,
And then whatever you get inside. So maybe it's the clues for the next puzzle. Maybe you won the game by doing that. So that challenge action reward is the building bricks of building an escape game. And then the last part of the framework is connections. How do you connect to all of those challenge action rewards together? So I completed a challenge. I did the actions. My reward sends me to the next challenge action reward cycle. And...
I could, my goodness, I could spend all day talking about like how that plays out. But I'll pause there with one exception. I think the final, so outcomes was the first thing. The framework, the learning escape game framework is the second thing. I think if there's one more thing that I'd want to make sure is like a core component of building an escape game is that you're building in practice with feedback so that you're.
puzzles are getting them to simulate essentially what you want them to do when they're done. And it's a safe place to fail. I get it wrong. I get to learn and try again. And that's really where game -based learning has a strength over regular learning, I would say, is it's safe to fail in a game. Because how many times in Super Mario Brothers or some video game did we fall into the cliff? Have to start all over again. And we're going to get it next time, right? So.
Having that practice feedback in a safe place to fail is important.
Jiani (15:27)
Yeah, it's always a motivator. I was like, okay, another one another time Yeah, yeah, yeah I was like I love to play super mario so much when I was like little kid and I was like one day I was at the providence mall and then someone was like just Invite everybody to play the game like for free. I'm like, my god, and I was like playing it's like Games are powerful. That's what i'm trying to say
Dr. Rachel Arpin (15:33)
I'm gonna get it next time, I swear!
Yes, absolutely.
Jiani (15:57)
Yeah,
we can do like maybe a live brainstorming here. If one of the, because part of our audiences are like learning leaders and managers and
If we were to develop a escape game that focuses on facilitating or enhancing inclusive leadership or inclusive mindset, how would you go about it? Can you walk us through the process that, you know, following the framework?
Dr. Rachel Arpin (16:31)
Mm -hmm.
Jiani (16:41)
the components and it's a safe environment so just feel free to to ramble or
Dr. Rachel Arpin (16:44)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah. Well, so I'm
going to equally put you back on the spot because I'm going to ask you some questions. So when you think about the overall kind of theme goal is facilitating inclusive mindset. That would be the banner, right? What would you say are some of the objectives or outcomes? What do you want people to do when they're done with the game?
Jiani (16:52)
Okay. Okay. Yes.
So the first outcome would be to be aware of their implicit bias or judgment. That's the key because they need to understand what are some biases that they have and they have to be aware of that. And then the second piece, we'll try to make it simple, not too complicated. So the second piece would be once they are aware of that hidden bias,
They need to use specific strategies, for example, self -reflection or peer communication or peer conversation to make that bias explicit and transparent to people that they work with, that they can trust.
So in this way, they are building people who understand and will also help them to catch them to say, hey, do you think you do this decision because you're that particular bias is inflicting your or impacting your decisions. The third part would be to when they are leading their team, they are able to.
assess their abilities, strengths and weakness or strengths and rooms for improvement with a more empathetic perspective. So empathy is the next thing they need to have deep empathy with their bias in mind to really play leadership roles or facilitate.
tasks or overcome challenges. So let's stop just right there. I think we can go on and on, but I think the three one implicit bias, the reports and empathy are the first three learning goals.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (19:14)
I gotta tell you, just even as you're talking about this, I'm like, I really wanna build this game. So we may have a side project after this is done. So, okay, so we're on, I'm gonna use the learning escape game framework, right? So we're on the left side of the framework where we have the objectives, which you just beautifully detailed out and make sense for the scope of today. The second item is a work breakdown structure. Now,
Jiani (19:21)
Perfect.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (19:42)
This, we could spend so much time on this. So let's pick one of them. Do we want to pick like becoming aware of your implicit bias as one of the objectives to focus on and then give a work breakdown? Okay, cool. So what would you say are the, if you were going to break down, what does it take to become aware of your implicit bias? What would I be doing to become aware?
Jiani (20:05)
I think the first thing is...
That's a very good question. We're breaking down awareness into several steps. I think the first step is to do a self kind of review. People do like 360 reviews. So the first step is to kind of review. There could be a situation that's easily to trigger implicit bias and ask them to just step into the leadership role and just make some decisions. And then,
They come back and then they get some feedback. Based on my decision, is there any implicit biases that I am accidentally practicing or using? That's as far as I can go.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (20:55)
Yeah.
No, no, that makes sense. And again, because we're doing this like in a short, very short and window of time, we can, as long as it feels like we're making progress through the framework and as a good demonstration for your audience, we could spend hours and hours just doing this. So I'm good if we keep it high level. So I like this. So what I'm hearing is if the objective is being aware of my implicit bias, my work breakdown structure includes a self review.
Jiani (21:12)
And so it can.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (21:24)
a way of being able to be presented with a situation or a scenario that I have to make a decision and then I can get feedback based on that decision and then reflect on that and reflect on how that fits into my implicit bias. Is that like a good recap? And I'm sure that there's more that could fit into that, but we'll start there. So then,
from an assessment standpoint, so this is the final part of that framework. How do I know, and we're really bad at judging ourselves, right? Like human beings just are, we give ourselves a lot of credit when it comes to assessing ourselves sometimes. How do I know, or we beat ourselves up, one of the extremes. How do I know that I'm doing this right?
Jiani (21:58)
this.
Yes.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (22:14)
Like, what would be a good way to assess that I'm becoming aware of my implicit bias?
Jiani (22:19)
I think if we were presented with the options or decisions that we have to choose, I think to assess that is to be able to choose the right decisions to make that demonstrates.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (22:35)
Mm -hmm.
Jiani (22:39)
someone who would make the decision without implicit bias. And sometimes the decision can be, let's think further. Or the decision can be, there's no decision made, I need to look into ABCD. So just the ability to make incremental decisions, I think would be the potential outcome that we can
Dr. Rachel Arpin (23:13)
Yeah, so part of what I'm hearing is part of the assessment would be that when I'm confronted with a situation, I can identify what my implicit bias is, right? That's kind of what I was picking up from what you were saying. Like you presented me with a scenario real or fabricated, right? Like, cause it could be still in a classroom environment. Here's a situation.
Jiani (23:35)
Mm.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (23:36)
Now what's your implicit bias around this? Is that what you say that would be a way of assessing it?
Jiani (23:42)
Self -assessment through reflection. That's one way of assessing that. I think another way is rather than me assessing myself, someone is making decisions based on the situation and the decision itself, whichever decision that they make, sort of like backwards kind of reflect.
on whether or not that person has a specific implicit bias. They just maybe jumping to conclusion fast, rather than instead of just let's wait, let's rethink or yeah, something like that. I think action speaks louder than words and even self -reflection. So something that they do or something that they decide can reflect whether or not that person has.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (24:19)
Mm -hmm.
Jiani (24:31)
implicit bias.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (24:33)
Yeah, well, and so even as you're saying that, so my brain's like coming up with all these possibilities of, you know, being able to, whether there's a bit of self -reflection, I made a decision, I did a thing, or sometimes it's easier to look at a decision someone else made and judge that, right? It's easier to be objective about someone else's decision than about my own. And so being able to do that, it kind of in a, wow.
Jiani (24:49)
⁓ yeah.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (24:59)
Jane Doe did this in the workplace. Here's the scenario. And you can go, I can see where this implicit bias or this implicit bias plays out. And then giving them that opportunity to self -reflect and go, I knew that too. OK. I'll get better at that. Great. And again, we could spend a lot of time diving into that and getting much more specific about it because.
Jiani (25:10)
That works too.
Mm -mm -mm.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (25:24)
Ultimately, when we start designing our puzzles, we're going to want to think about how can our puzzles help us confirm that people are learning through the process. So that's the education side of it. So then on the escape game side,
Jiani (25:34)
Mm.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (25:39)
The one thing that I want to put out there is all of this education stuff up front is really helpful and important. On the escape game side, it's not necessarily a do this, then this, then this. It's very iterative. You're going to maybe come up with ideas on the theme and narrative and then come up with puzzles. But then you get some really good puzzles that...
you go towards your objectives and your assessment, you're like, you know what, if that fits better in a different kind of story. So I'm going to change the story to fit now the experience. So the stuff on the escape same side is a little bit more wibbly wobbly, if you will. Yeah.
Jiani (26:13)
So it's more of like iterative and
always. Yeah, I see. I see.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (26:19)
So
let's think through this. So first off with the theme and the narrative. So we know we want people to be aware of implicit bias. We have some ideas of how we can break this down. What would be some stories or some narratives that we could put people into to help create this? Do you have any that come to mind?
Jiani (26:41)
I think the most, the quick, a quick example would be like interview, like which candidate to select, to interview. ⁓ I think that's the easiest, like that's the easiest, the quickest scenario. another more kind of not as easy would be like a team collaboration.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (26:50)
Mm -hmm.
Jiani (27:02)
You have like a multicultural team on site and you need to make something happen and it requires different things. For example, if you see someone that you think is pretty good at math or someone who has a PhD degree is like, this is a math piece. Let's let this person to do the math piece. So it's more, it comes back to the delegation. So.
your judgment of what this person is good at or not good at, what this person can do or not do. You assign them different tasks based on your assumptions or biases. It doesn't have to be breaks. I think it's more of like a quick judgment. And then the, yeah.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (27:38)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, and those are...
and those are very practical, real life themes that someone in a workplace could say, it makes sense that I'm playing a game, that this is the theme or narrative. And that's an important thing to consider is, are people willing to play? And if you have an audience of people that maybe are not as open to the play space or imagination, you have a phrase that I love, that childlike wonder.
if, if people aren't willing to step into that, you might have to be very practical in your theme and your narrative. We're, we're going to do this experience and it's going to be about interviewing candidates, or it's going to be about, you know, task delegation kind of thing. And that absolutely makes sense to pursue that when you know, your audience, my brain often operates as if I'm still 12 years old playing my video games. And so.
Jiani (28:22)
Yeah.
Mm.
Love it, love it.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (28:49)
One of the things that came to mind is there's a wonderful person in the game space and learning and development, Mohsin Memon I don't know if I said his last name right. Yeah, you gotta love Mohsen. And he and a group of folks had come up with, it's kind of like an implicit bias game and it involved aliens, I believe. It's been a little bit since I interacted with that game, but it was a way to be able to say, let's take it out of the,
Jiani (28:59)
Yeah, yeah, I know him.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (29:18)
what could be, I don't want to say icky feeling, but you know, like it's going to create emotions when you make it too real. So let's make it about aliens because you can have all different kinds of situations, descriptors, whatever it might be, the things that generally feed implicit bias and how can we, how can we assess it in that regard? So being able to take it to that kind of space or.
Jiani (29:26)
Hmm.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (29:44)
When you said the task delegation example, I started thinking of what if it was like a race, like a C.A.R race? And would there be something like, you know, as the different laps are happening that has something to do with, we have to move through this. So I'm going to make this person, I don't know. But that's the fun part of this theme and narrative is, is being able to say, let's brainstorm a bunch of ideas. Like you could have.
Jiani (30:03)
I like it.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (30:08)
I don't know why I always come back to Alice in Wonderland. I feel like she wants me to make a game about her at some point, but it hasn't come to the surface yet.
Jiani (30:17)
I still remember
the dragon on the top of the castle when we first met. I was like, the dragon! my god! What does the dragon want to do? What is he thinking? Hungry? He wanted to like go hunt? Or he wanted to play? I just like, I wanted to like...
Dr. Rachel Arpin (30:22)
Yep.
Let's be honest,
dragons get a bad rap and everyone's always wanted to go fight the dragon or kill the dragon, but what if the dragon's really awesome, right?
Jiani (30:41)
Yeah, there's some movies like from Disney, there's like we befriend or we at least tame a dragon and they we kind of go together, friendships and...
Dr. Rachel Arpin (30:49)
Yeah!
So that could be the theme of the game, right? Like we run into this dragon and we imagine it to be this like fierce, you know, person killing, fire breathing, whatever. And no, they're just a little book dragon. They just want to cuddle and read books, but you don't know that upfront.
Jiani (31:10)
that
we we recently adopted that reminds me recently adopted a dog and his name is Pluto and he he's such a sweet sweet big dog and he would just like cuddle with your side but whenever we bring him outside he would just like bark at like other dogs like crazy and and yeah sometimes see that's also implicit bias it's like if you see this dog on walking on the street you probably will think bad dog
Dr. Rachel Arpin (31:28)
⁓ Yeah.
Jiani (31:38)
But if you if you kind of bring more empathy, it's like, I wonder what his life looked like when he's with the with the family at home, no distraction, not on the road. What would that be like? And then at least you've asked this question. It's like, now I have more empathy.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (31:38)
Yeah!
You know what, that's actually
a really great example because if you see a pit bull, you're going to think, a lot of people are going to think one thing about that dog versus a little Chihuahua. And so you could have a whole game built on implicit bias around how you perceive a dog walking down the street. And it could work. So.
Jiani (32:10)
it I love it my god we can go on this like I'm just like I'm smiling like two tears I don't know why we can go on this forever and let's kind of take and we can continue this off off the the podcast let me clear my tears a little
Dr. Rachel Arpin (32:19)
Yes.
Yes.
Jiani (32:34)
You mentioned about the kind of the childlike wonder. What do you think is the role that childlike wonder play for adults? And how does that play into a role of like skill development, cultural development, transcending our perceptions and all that? Obviously, I'm asking you a very leading question. So.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (32:58)
Yeah,
well, I mean, I think it's, I've run into situations at work and I've seen it where I've created a game and it's a training game. So people still come at it with certain mindsets of, I have to complete a training, right? And especially if it's digital, a lot of stuff that I do at work is digital escape games as opposed to physical escape games just for scalability reasons.
and sometimes the feedback is, I don't want to play a game. I just want to get the information and go. And so it hurt my feelings a little bit, but once I got over it and I reflected on that, I was like, you know what? There's a couple of things that I think can help with that. One, expectations, set expectations about what this experience is and people can decide how they want to engage with it.
And if they really, truly do not want to play a game, then having an option for them to get the materials in a different way is important because you can't make everyone play. But being able to set the expectations of this is, like if they're not game players, this is a simulation of an experience. It's going to be a little bit different than what you expect. But when you get to the end, here's what you'll be getting out of this. So I think that's a really key important part.
Another part is having quick wins up front. Whenever you play any kind of game, especially video games, they give you really easy, quick things that you're like, yeah, I got those coins, or yeah, I powered up, I got the mushroom at the very beginning and now I'm big size Mario instead of little size Mario. And hopefully you do that before the little Goomba guy gets you.
Jiani (34:37)
yeah, yeah, give them motivation and get them feel accomplished early on, frequent and early on.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (34:42)
Mm -hmm.
Yes, so quick wins are really important because then that lets them know that I'm gonna be successful with this and I can keep going when it gets hard because I have already won once. That's so key. Another thing is continuity of experience. So I built a game, so the game that I built for my dissertation, it was this leadership training and I said it in a conference room where,
People knew they were stepping into a leadership training, the theme and narrative. It made sense that it looked like a conference room that they were stepping into. It was also a digital game. And then at one point I was like, I can break, I can break the rules. I can break the laws of nature because it's digital. Whatever I want can happen. And so I played around with that idea and I made a trap door open up in the conference room. You climb out and then for the whole final part of the game, you're outside. And for some people, they loved that.
Like it was a breath of fresh air. They broke out of the conference room and now they're applying leadership training in a different space. But for some people, they struggled with how it didn't fit in continuity with the whole rest of the game. And so there's that balance of how do I, how do I amaze and surprise and keep you engaged because something new might pop up, especially in the third act of a game. You always expect something big to happen at that final, final act. But.
does it still make sense within the narrative of what they're in? Because if it knocks them fully out of the narrative that they're in, you're gonna lose them. You've broken your magic circle and now they're like, why am I even here? This has nothing to do with what I was just doing. So I'd say those are some of the biggest things. And along with that is play testing.
And it's a very mechanical thing. So it's not so much the childlike wonder, but the first thing that's going to break someone's play mode is if they do something and it should work and it's not working. I'm hitting this button. You told me to hit this button. All the hints are telling me to hit this button. This is the combination. You told me this is the combination and it's not working. People are going to be done. They're just going to rip cord out of that game. So play testing is so critical to.
make sure that what you're building kind of hugs them into the experience instead of pushing them out of it.
Jiani (37:23)
I love that. It's like, yeah, it's like safety also like trust. It's like a strong sense of trust. Like, yeah, I'm devoting my time here playing this game and I need everything to work properly and I need a certain sense of like fidelity. I wanted to have this confidence that I'm going to ultimately learn something and grow out of this experience.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (37:28)
Yes.
Jiani (37:48)
Otherwise, they feel like they're just wasting their time and that's not good. Time is people's most valuable resources, most, most valuable resources. Beautiful. And as we kind of, in terms of like escape games, were there anything in specific that you want us to kind of talk about that we so far haven't yet delved into yet?
Dr. Rachel Arpin (37:55)
Mm -hmm.
So I think one thing, if we go back to the example, the implicit bias example that we were working through, where we stopped at the narrative, I feel as like where a lot of people stop and then they struggle with the C.A.R and the connection part of the framework. Because the challenge, action, reward, it's the building block of the game and you've got to be able to get that right. So I've been thinking about...
Jiani (38:17)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (38:37)
One thing that I'd love to be able to leave with your audience is an example of a C.A.R. of a challenge action reward for the example that we were thinking through just to be able to kind of close that loop.
Jiani (38:48)
Continue.
I love that.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (38:51)
So one of the things I started thinking about is I'm going to pick the dog theme because I really loved when we landed there. And perhaps we are trying to audition dogs for a dog food commercial or some kind of dog park commercial. So this is the theme and the narrative that we're in. The challenge is you have like.
Jiani (38:59)
Hehehe
Dr. Rachel Arpin (39:17)
all of the profiles or the audition packets of the dogs have been messed up. And so now you have to piece together their profiles. So this dog, this name, this type of dog, different descriptors, that kind of thing. And so the actions would be to put all of those pieces together. And you could use like clues or maybe there's different like,
maybe early on there were interviews done with like dog moms, dog dads about their dogs so you can like piece together a bunch of different clues to help you put together the profile. So those are the actions. And the reward in the end is one, you have all the profiles for the dogs and two, hopefully you'll recognize, I totally thought that this descriptor went with this dog because of my implicit bias about this type of breed of dog.
So challenge is the portfolios, the actions are the steps to put them together. The reward is the final portfolio of the correct dogs and your reflection on implicit bias. So I just kind of wanted to close the loop on how using challenge, action, reward, C.A.R can play into that.
Jiani (40:25)
I love it so much and that's gonna be the first like challenge one like get the profile completed and we can come of continue this journey and That's that's fabulous. I totally not expecting this. Yeah turning into I just I love this conversation. I hope our audiences are enjoying it as well and Next question would be kind of let's kind of look into the future take a sneak peek into the future. I
Dr. Rachel Arpin (40:30)
You
It'll be a lot of fun.
Jiani (41:01)
do you see the escape games evolve or being enhanced or being expanded with like artificial GenAI extended reality, or even brand machine interactions, all that web 3, all that interesting emerging fast developing technologies?
Dr. Rachel Arpin (41:19)
Sure. So in the XR space, there are already a great collection of like virtual reality and augmented reality escape game experiences that are out there. They're games for game's sake. So I haven't seen a whole lot of learning escape games in those yet. But when you think about like, I'll use augmented reality. I was having a conversation with Betty Danowitz, industry Hildenbrand, because they are like the king and queen of AR right now, right?
And we were talking about how cool it is to be able to have a game in a space, like at a conference or in a meeting, and you can make things appear that aren't there. You can layer your augmented reality over this space, and then you can interact with those to learn, to engage, and escape games work well with that kind of mechanic. So...
Definitely see augmented reality being able to be a space where now I can take an escape game to any conference room because all I need are the posters of the platforms to be able to engage with augmented reality. And now my room is a different environment. So I definitely see that. From a virtual reality standpoint, we're looking at ways to use VR for training purposes at my company. And...
I think that from a learning standpoint, getting someone to do an escape game might already be a little bit hard sell, a little bit, right? And then to add virtual reality, that feels super game -like. But I do think that the mechanics within the escape game, even if I don't call it an escape game, are beneficial. So this whole challenge, action, reward, I'm challenging you to do something. You have to take these actions. And...
In my mind, I know I'll call it an escape game, but when I pre -position it to my clients, my customers, we're simulating an experience and we're getting people to challenge and take action and get feedback. That's the reward part of that, that learning feedback. And you know what? It's a safe place to fail. Try again. So I can see that happening. When you mentioned AI, I giggled a little bit. So I...
Jiani (43:14)
Hmm.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (43:27)
I'm in a long distance relationship. And so to keep it fun, we send each other coded messages in a notebook, like back and forth. And I one time was like, you know what, I wonder if ChatGPT, or I might've even used Copilot just to try it out, can help me create a coded message. And so I was like, hey, here's my message. Can you put this into this type of cipher?
And I can't, like, I think I tried a couple different ones. There's like substitution, like where A equals Z or one equals A, that kind of thing. And I think I tried a couple other ones as well. And it was able to code it. And then I said, okay, chat GPT, can you decode what you just gave me? And it wasn't doing it. Like it was decoding it incorrectly. So I still have, like I...
I am very curious about the LLMs behind AI and how are they learning how to code decode? Because you know they can. So why is it that it wasn't working here? Was it my prompts that were not good? So I'm very interested in exploring that a little bit more because I do believe that AI can help framework ideas come up with narratives, maybe talk through here some example puzzles.
But I haven't yet gotten into that dialogue space with it where it helps me to design out a good escape game. So I hope that's coming. As far as Web3 and Brain Machine, I don't know that I can speak to those very well. Because from a game design standpoint, usually you have, like I'm thinking of Web3, so like audience -owned internet, right, essentially.
Jiani (45:10)
Mmm.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (45:11)
The only thing that I could think of is what if a bunch of people got in and community designed a game and so then we're solving each other's puzzles. I don't know if that technically counts as Web3, but it's using that Web3 principle of audience ownership maybe. So I could see that happening. Yeah. I think.
Jiani (45:29)
and...
Yeah, so more
like maybe higher privacy, authenticity in people's messages or even the environment, the data, the data will be protected. And maybe more context will come into play because people may form the, like you said, community. So different communities may have specific contacts. So the layers will be much, much more and more complicated, I think more specific.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (45:58)
Mm -hmm.
Jiani (45:59)
to that particular niche in the group of folks.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (46:02)
You know, as we're saying that, there's a part of me that really wants to have like a community escape game design jam where we all come together, we make one puzzle, and then we solve everybody else's puzzles. That'd be really fun. Okay.
Jiani (46:16)
Yeah,
that would be and we will yeah, if there's any links, let me know and I will attach in the show notes and we'll see if people get excited and they come. Yeah, maybe, maybe to go after this podcast. Beautiful. And so let me just give you kind of.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (46:26)
Okay, it doesn't exist yet, so.
Mm -hmm.
Jiani (46:44)
recap for the audience of what's going on and we'll move into the magic piece of the conversation. So, so far we've kind of talked about Dr. Rachel's story and why she decided to pick the specialization in escape games and why combining that with leadership. And we talked about key framework, design framework for a intriguing escape game for
busy adults and we explored, we actually did a live exploration about how we can design a game using that framework to help people.
be aware of their implicit bias, rather than going through a slide deck, there's a game that they can go through. And then we also talked about the future of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, specifically augmented reality, where we're able to bring that simulation into the real world, and that immediately transform an environment and bring people immediately into the story. So we also talked about...
the potential risks and challenges and trustability of AI and how that could be a gap that future developers can look into and help people solve particular problems so we can use that in a more specific situation.
Beautiful. And as we move into this magic piece, so Rachel, what did you enjoy doing when you were...
11 12 years old and Time just disappeared Yeah
Dr. Rachel Arpin (48:20)
taking me back.
So this would be around like sixth or seventh grade. Okay, memories. I'd say where I at that time where I was spending most of my energy, where time would just disappear. I played softball when I was younger. And that was definitely a passion of mine.
I thought that was going to go a little bit further than it actually did. And then music, my other passion of that time ended up being what took over it all. And so I spent a lot of time at that age with music and with yeah, softball I'd say would be the two main things. I grew up an only child also. So a lot of it was, if I was going to play some games, I was figuring out like, how do I set up my stuffed animals to play?
Jiani (48:52)
Hahaha
Dr. Rachel Arpin (49:11)
the other players of the game with me. Or I'd just like run out my backyard and go hang out in the woods and explore there. So yeah, around 11 or 12, there's definitely a lot more just that childlike true experience of just going and playing.
Jiani (49:15)
Yeah.
it.
Yeah.
And a lot of imagination I can see. yeah.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (49:32)
Yes. Yes,
a lot of imagination.
Jiani (49:35)
Beautiful, beautiful. And were there any particular challenges that you have to overcome to help shape who you are now?
Dr. Rachel Arpin (49:45)
So it's interesting, you know.
it's easy to want to kind of like downplay challenges you've gone through, especially if you're in a past them kind of space or my challenge is what are they in comparison to what so many people have experienced in life? So I kind of had to like say, okay, Rachel, disclaimer, your struggles are yours. Some people have it better, some people have it worse. And I just have to kind of acknowledge that, right? So that's where my head was at in trying to answer this. But I think probably the biggest,
Jiani (50:11)
Love it.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (50:17)
recent challenge is, recognizing that I have, I have ADHD and I only just found out about this like a year ago, like a year or two ago. And so, and it's very common for women of my age to have not been diagnosed when we were younger. because our symptoms sometimes represent differently than, you know, boys when we're younger.
which I don't mean to make it a gender thing because there's a wide spectrum of how ADHD appears for folks. And I'm not an expert. I am currently learning a lot. But it's been interesting to be able to say, here's where this is why I can see that I get super yippy puppy excited about stuff and really want to do things. And it's genuine excitement for people and ideas. And then it...
could fall off because either the idea doesn't excite me or I don't have the people around me to say, no, let's keep working on this together. So just kind of like recognizing how my brain has impacted me in that way. I have a million and a half ideas and forget about half of them when I actually have time to do something with them. And so it's just been interesting to learn like all of this like,
negative self -talk I've had over the years or trying to explain some of the things like around me that I struggle with or that are harder for me or that people assume are really easy for me but I actually really have to work very hard to make happen. And it's nice to know where that's coming from. It's not because I'm lazy. It's not because I'm this or I'm stupid or all these things that I sometimes tell myself. It's like your brain works differently. You're neuro spicy.
It's fun! Run with it, because it can also be your superpower!
Jiani (52:06)
Yeah, it's all come down to like how we manage our own talent assets as individuals. And there are some implicit bias that we use against ourselves. Like, you know, when we think about ADHD, it's like, it's challenging.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (52:13)
Yes.
Jiani (52:25)
But wait, what are some things that ADHD is really good at? wait, wait, wait, like brainstorming, creativity, the ability to be enthusiastic, like a million ideas. Who have a million ideas? And so there's, yeah, so implicit bias, how we can be more empathetic toward ourselves and whatever challenge or tags that society currently has.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (52:34)
You
yeah.
Jiani (52:52)
that can help us both embrace our soft spots and also help us to grow and enhance our strengths. I think that's so, so important. So give you a hug.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (53:02)
⁓
hugs. Yes, I love it. I need to make it out to Rhode Island so I can come and give you a hug in real person.
Jiani (53:08)
Hi!
yeah let's do this
and go take a walk on the beach with our Pluto
Dr. Rachel Arpin (53:19)
I grew up in Connecticut, so who knew I was like so close to you? But...
Jiani (53:26)
It's okay. We'll find a time. We'll find a time.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (53:29)
We'll make it happen.
Jiani (53:39)
as we conclude this conversation, so what do you think is your magic? As of now, because people evolve. So just 2024. Or you want to pick an evergreen one, feel free to.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (53:44)
Mmm.
Yeah.
So what do I think is my magic? I think kind of the first thing that comes to mind is like I love people. I am a yippy puppy when I am around people. They just make me so happy. I hope people see it as genuine and sincere when it happens because I legit I get so excited I bounce. I like want to tackle hug people. I also like sometimes have to be like no you know you got to make sure that they want a hug before you give them a hug kind of thing.
Jiani (54:18)
I'm
Dr. Rachel Arpin (54:19)
But
I'd say people is a big part of my magic. And then also the ideas, like having a million and a half ideas is great. It's a little frustrating when you can't do them all. It's not possible to do all of these ideas, but like the ideation and brainstorming and being able to dive into a problem, I love that. And then with that, being able to make connections. So maybe I can't run with an idea.
but I know people that are excited about it and they should be talking. I love making those connections for people. Being able to say, hey, my friend here, you have to meet this friend over here because you all are talking about the same things. So I'd say that's where my magic trifecta is.
Jiani (55:05)
the
love, the curiosity of people, the connector. So love people and want to connect to them just to foster authentic connections among people. Love that. And then even the games, it's like you're building, this is a mechanism that you use to bring people together. So ultimately it's like,
Dr. Rachel Arpin (55:17)
Absolutely.
Jiani (55:26)
connecting people on a deeper level with each other.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (55:30)
Yeah. And
speaking of connecting, I know we probably don't have time to go in it now, but there are some resources and folks that I think that would be interesting to explore if people are interested in escape games, learning escape games, and just gamification in general. So I don't know if you want to go into that now, or if you want, I can just give you links, but definitely a shout out to like Recon the Reality Escape Convention that's hosted every August.
There's an academic group, Nassaga. They're a great group of people doing simulation and gaming and research. And they're a fun crew.
Jiani (55:59)
Hehehe.
Dr. Rachel Arpin (56:06)
And then of course, Sententia Gamification, they have their whole game -based learning certification, gamification certifications in the learning and development space. And we were talking a little bit about potential communities. I have a dear friend, Abigail Cook, who is just an amazing person. If you're on TikTok, she's Ms. Lizard and just an amazing human being. We started a Discord and it's learning escape games, because I really liked the legs acronym.
I don't know. We haven't launched it, but it's built. So I think we just need, you know, if you build it, they will come kind of mentality. So if people are interested in joining a learning escape game community, let me know, connect with me on LinkedIn. We can figure out how to build that learning escape game discord community.
Jiani (56:35)
Hahaha
That's beautiful. Yeah, so all the links will be in the show note below that we totally encourage you to get connected with Dr. Rachel and her circle of communities. And so let's just make it
Dr. Rachel Arpin (57:12)
Thanks Jiani I appreciate you having me.
Jiani (57:14)
Thank you, Rachel.
Learning Experience Game Framework Structure
Successful learning escape games require a sophisticated design approach that harmonizes growth rigor with engaging gameplay. This framework structure ensures that games deliver meaningful learning outcomes while maintaining the immersive experience that makes them effective.
Measurable Objectives
Dr. Rachel mentioned that the educational side begins with clearly defined, demonstrable objectives. Rather than vague goals like "improve leadership skills," effective escape games target specific, verb-based outcomes: "Participants will identify their implicit biases when making team delegation decisions." This specificity enables designers to create targeted experiences and measure real behavior change.
The work breakdown structure then maps the tactical progression needed to achieve these objectives. For developing bias awareness, this might include conducting self-reviews, responding to realistic scenarios, and reflecting on decision-making patterns. This systematic approach ensures that game elements directly support learning goals rather than merely entertaining participants.
Assessment strategies complete the educational foundation by establishing how learning will be measured. This goes beyond completion rates to focus on behavioral change and practical application. Can participants identify bias patterns in realistic scenarios? Do they demonstrate improved decision-making processes? These questions guide both game design and evaluation.
The Escape Game Elements
The game side introduces a story theme and narrative to create psychological distance from workplace pressures. Dr. Rachel mentioned that by stepping into alternative realities—whether interviewing candidates for roles or selecting dogs for commercials—participants can explore leadership challenges without the emotional baggage of actual workplace situations. This safe space enables honest self-reflection and risk-taking that might be uncomfortable in traditional training environments.
Dr. Rachel also proposed the Challenge-Action-Reward (CAR) building blocks form the core game mechanics. Each CAR cycle presents a specific challenge (like assembling scattered profile information), requires deliberate actions (searching for clues, solving puzzles), and provides satisfying rewards (successful completion plus learning insights). These cycles maintain engagement while reinforcing learning objectives.
Connections between CAR cycles create the game's progression structure. Completing one challenge unlocks the next, creating momentum and ensuring that learning builds systematically throughout the experience.
The Safe Failure Zone
Perhaps most importantly, learning escape games creates environments where failure becomes a learning tool rather than a career risk. The "Super Mario principle" applies here—when players fall into a pit or fail to solve a puzzle, they simply try again with new knowledge. This psychological safety enables participants to experiment with leadership approaches, receive immediate feedback, and adjust their strategies without real-world consequences.
The Iterative Design Process
Unlike traditional instructional design, escape game development requires an iterative, non-linear approach. Designers might begin with learning objectives, develop puzzle ideas, and then realize that a different narrative would better support the intended experience. This flexibility allows for optimization of both educational and entertainment value.
The key is to harmonize both behavioral growth goals and engaging gameplay. Sometimes, brilliant puzzles don't support learning objectives and must be modified or removed. Other times, essential learning components need creative integration into game mechanics. This constant adjustment ensures that neither education nor engagement suffers in the final product.
Real-World Application: Addressing Implicit Bias
In this conversation, we did a live design challenge: developing leaders' awareness of implicit bias—a complex, sensitive topic that traditional training often had difficulty handling. Dr. Rachel proposed an idea:
Growth Objectives: Develop awareness of unconscious bias
Assessment: Make non-biased decisions
Story/Narrative: an escape game invites leaders to select dogs for a commercial project; successful leaders will complete the mission when non-biased is demonstrated
Challenge: match descriptions with the correct dog candidates
Actions: gather clues and make connections
Reward: both puzzle completion and the realization of how quickly assumptions influence matching decisions.
This approach allows for honest self-reflection about bias patterns without the defensiveness that often accompanies direct workplace discussions. Participants can recognize their decision-making patterns in a neutral context, then apply these insights to actual leadership situations.
The Technology Frontier
Dr. Rachel said that emerging technologies could expand escape game capabilities significantly. Augmented reality (XR) can transform any conference room into an immersive environment, layering digital elements over physical spaces to create instant game worlds. Virtual reality offers even more immersive possibilities, though it may require careful positioning to avoid seeming "too game-like" for resistant audiences.
Artificial intelligence shows promise for creating adaptive experiences and generating personalized content, though current limitations in puzzle creation and coding accuracy suggest this technology needs further development. Web3 principles might enable community-designed games where participants create challenges for each other, fostering collaborative learning ecosystems.
Conclusion
Learning escape games represents a significant potential future in leadership development methodology. By combining rigorous educational design with engaging gameplay mechanics, they create experiences that develop complex leadership skills through practice, reflection, and safe experimentation. As organizations seek more effective ways to develop leaders capable of navigating increasingly complex challenges, escape games offer a proven framework for transforming abstract concepts into practical, applicable skills.
The future of leadership development lies not in choosing between serious learning and engaging experiences, but in thoughtfully combining both to create behavioral transformation opportunities.
Editor’s note:
The evolution of escape rooms from ancient puzzles and labyrinths, which symbolized spiritual journeys and problem-solving quests, to contemporary digital platforms represents a natural progression in experiential learning methodologies (Damasevicius & Sidekerskiene, 2025). This historical trajectory has culminated in sophisticated educational tools that leverage cutting-edge technologies, including Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), to create immersive, scalable learning experiences accessible to distributed teams worldwide (Damasevicius & Sidekerskiene, 2023). Modern escape room design follows systematic frameworks that include identifying specific learning objectives, creating engaging narratives, designing progressive challenges, providing real-time feedback, and evaluating measurable outcomes, ensuring these experiences deliver tangible organizational benefits (Damasevicius & Sidekerskiene, 2023).
The theoretical foundation for escape game effectiveness rests on sociocultural literacy theory and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies (CSP), which position diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds as fundamental strengths rather than barriers to overcome (Pennington et al., 2025). Combined with multiliteracies frameworks that recognize meaning-making through visual, auditory, gestural, and digital modes, these approaches create multimodal learning experiences that honor participants' varied ways of knowing while developing critical consciousness for social transformation (Pennington et al., 2025). This theoretical grounding enables escape rooms to function as authentic, high-pressure scenarios that naturally develop interconnected leadership competencies, including teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking under time constraints. Rushdan et al. (2025) also shows substantial improvements in clinical reasoning and collaborative abilities, revealing positive correlations between critical thinking and teamwork skills essential for effective leadership.
As organizations increasingly recognize the limitations of traditional training methods, escape rooms offer a bridge between theoretical knowledge and practical application, preparing leaders for real-world challenges through experiential learning that fosters both individual growth and collective organizational transformation. At the organizational level, escape room (also via XR) interventions have the potential to create systemic cultural changes, successfully shifting participants from deficit-based perspectives to asset-oriented approaches and transforming institutional mindsets toward more inclusive, collaborative practices (Damasevicius & Sidekerskiene, 2023; Pennington et al., 2025).
Reference
Damaševičius, R., & Sidekerskiene, T. (2023). Designing gamified augmented reality-based escape rooms. In GAMOTEC 2023: International workshop on gamification and motivational technologies (GAMOTEC), 29-30 November 2023, University of Zaragoza (Spain): proceedings. (Vol. 3, pp. 123-127). Zaragoza: University of Zaragoza.
Damasevičius, R. & Sidekerskienė, T. (2025). Designing a Digital Educational Escape Room. IGI Global Publishing.
Pennington, V., Howell, E., Rowe, L. W., Ferguson‐Sams, N., Gazioglu, M., Mittapalli, K., & Banerjee, A. (2025). Escaping Inequity: A Digital Escape Room Professional Development for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.
Rushdan, E. E., Mohamed, M. A. E. S., Abdelhalim, G. E., El-Ashry, A. M., & Ali, H. F. M. (2025). Effect of an escape room as a gamification evaluation tool on clinical reasoning and teamwork skills among nursing students: A quasi-experimental study. Nurse Education in Practice, 82, 104188.
⭐ Dr. Rachel’s MAGIC
Dr. Rachel's magic lies in her infectious enthusiasm for human connection and her ability to see the extraordinary potential in ordinary interactions. She possesses a rare combination of genuine love for people, describing herself as a "yippy puppy" who gets so excited she wants to "tackle hug" everyone, paired with an endless fountain of creative ideas and a natural gift for connecting others. Her magic manifests in her ability to transform learning from mundane slide decks into immersive experiences where people can safely explore their biases, practice leadership skills, and discover new things about themselves and their teammates. Like a master alchemist, she takes the raw materials of human curiosity, challenge, and play, then weaves them together through escape games that create moments of genuine discovery and connection. Her true superpower isn't just designing games - it's creating spaces where adults can rediscover their sense of wonder while growing both personally and professionally.
Connect with Dr. Rachel
Dr. Rachel Arpin transforms leadership learning through immersive, interactive experiences. She constantly researches innovative training methods, including her groundbreaking study on escape rooms as leadership development tools. With a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership, she also runs LED Learning, helping organizations move beyond traditional training to create meaningful change. Based in Columbus, Ohio, she's passionate about designing games and proving that effective learning should also be engaging.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-rachel-arpin-6507a5b/
https://escapegameresources.carrd.co/
Resources for Escape Games:
Credits & Revisions:
Guest Reviewer: Dr. Rachel Arpin
Story Writer/Editor: Dr. Jiani Wu
AI Partner: Perplexity, Claude
Initial Publication: June 25 2025
Disclaimer:
AI technologies are harnessed to create initial content derived from genuine conversations. Human re-creation & review are used to ensure accuracy, relevance & quality.
