How ‘virtual escape rooms’ are helping students enrol during Covid-19

Built to inflame the imagination of the school’s sixth grade (11 year old) prospects, The Harker School enlisted a Denver based company which specialises in online escape rooms called Paruzal. It’s certainly a unique USP, we’ll give them that.

Through a blend of affordable low-tech operations: a Zoom call, PowerPoint-esque slides, and a game master to lead the events, Paruzal worked with Harker to devise several games of varying difficulty. Some even include subtle references which will score brownie points if particularly bright students pick them out.

Set in quirky environments, like Bruce Springsteen concerts, coffee shops, and pizzerias, students are put to the test on time sensitive tasks like, ‘Can you find the backup coffee beans before the food critic arrives?’ and ‘Will you get to meet Springsteen in his dressing room before the journalist arrives and interrupts you?’

One of the more demanding games is said to recreate the setup of the school’s real life annual picnic. Supplies to build the event are concealed in coded lockers, the combinations buried in various sections of Harker’s library.

With the answers hidden cryptically amongst background objects, like posters or recipe notes, and often requiring arithmetic and subversive guile to complete, students tell the game master which location they wish to focus on prompting them to switch to the appropriate slide.

Overall, in this particular game – which changes regularly to avoid any potential cheating – students averaged a completion time of 33 minutes. I dread to think what mine would be at 26 years of age.

‘Of course, the score isn’t the only factor.’ Says Paruzal chief James Warner, suggesting that monitoring player interactions is just as valuable. ‘You take notes on the various performances to identify a student that screams at one of their counterparts in the game, or maybe there’s somebody who’s building consensus.’

Crucially though, the best part about this idea (and why it is likely to be adopted by other institutions) is that it provides many students with a fair oppurunity to make the cut.

Eric Nichols, Vice President of enrolment management at Loyola University Maryland sums up perfectly by stating, ‘For students on the borderline academically, these skills can help an admission office decide who to take a chance on. It puts everyone on an equal playing field.’