Building an Escape Room with AI as Your Instructional Design Partner: Part 1

When I set out to build a virtual escape room for my course, my goal was simple: transform a notoriously boring week of content into an engaging, collaborative learning experience. What emerged was not just a better assignment, but a blueprint for creating immersive educational activities that prioritize student engagement while leveraging modern tools to accelerate the design process.

Part 1 of this article shares the pedagogical decisions, design principles, and practical lessons I learned while building my first escape room, offering a roadmap for any educator interested in creating their own. Part 2 will dive further into how I leveraged AI tools to help with the process.

The Foundation: Content and Learning Outcomes

Every good escape room starts with clear learning goals. I began by identifying a week in my curriculum that desperately needed revitalization, one where students consistently seemed disengaged with traditional delivery methods. I gathered my learning outcomes, existing materials, and course content, then asked myself: What do I actually want students to understand and remember from this week?

In my case, I wanted students to explore the four different academic perspectives (Artist, Humanist, Social Scientist, and Natural Scientist) they would be exposed to in their general education curriculum. This became the skeleton of my escape room.

Practical tip: At this stage, I used AI tools to brainstorm how to transform lecture content into interactive activities. While the initial suggestions weren't perfect, they helped me see possibilities I hadn't considered. Think of AI as a brainstorming partner. It can generate ideas quickly, but you'll need to refine them with your own pedagogical expertise.

Design Principle 1: Narrative Creates Engagement

The single most important lesson I learned was this: students need a story, not just a series of puzzles.

My first attempts produced disconnected activities (click here, answer this, find that). It felt like a scavenger hunt without purpose. But when I wrapped those same activities in a cohesive narrative (students entering the "doors" of four different perspectives to unlock knowledge), everything clicked into place. The activities built on each other logically, and students could see how each room connected to the larger learning goal.

Creating a narrative doesn't require you to be a creative writer. I used AI tools to help develop story elements and transitions, feeding them my content and asking for narrative frameworks. The key was maintaining editorial control. I shaped the story to serve my learning outcomes, not the other way around.

Design question to ask yourself: What's the journey students will take? Why does each step matter to the next?

Design Principle 2: Consistency Reduces Cognitive Load

While I wanted the escape room to be engaging, I didn't want it to be frustratingly difficult. Students needed to focus on learning the content, not deciphering increasingly complex puzzle mechanics.

My solution was to establish a consistent pattern across all four rooms:

• Explore hotspots to learn about each perspective
• Find a notebook with a missing word related to that perspective
• Locate a clue hidden in the room to reveal the word
• Enter the word to progress to the next room

This predictability allowed students to focus on the content rather than figuring out new rules in each space. They could collaborate more effectively because everyone understood what to look for.

Design question to ask yourself: Are you creating a productive challenge (engaging with content) or an unproductive challenge (figuring out confusing mechanics)?

Design Principle 3: Progression and Payoff

I initially considered letting students choose which room to enter first, but ultimately decided on a linear progression. This decision served two purposes: it ensured students built knowledge in a logical sequence, and it made the final challenge more meaningful.

That final challenge brought together code words from all four rooms using a cipher that students assembled piece by piece throughout their journey. This created a sense of payoff—everything they'd learned contributed to unlocking the final message.

Design question to ask yourself: How will students feel when they complete your escape room? Does the ending tie together their learning journey?

The Technical Build: Tools as Enablers

Once I had my pedagogical framework solid, the actual building process became much smoother. I used ThingLink because it seamlessly integrates 360-degree images with interactive hotspots, and we have a university license that connects to our LMS. But the specific tool matters less than understanding what you need:

• A platform for creating interactive spaces (ThingLink, Google Slides, H5P, or even a series of linked Google Forms)
• Visual elements that support your narrative (I used Adobe Stock for 360 images and Adobe Express to create cipher fragments that looked like torn paper)
• A way for students to input answers and progress (built into most interactive platforms)

AI tools helped accelerate several technical tasks: generating image descriptions for searching stock libraries, creating cipher codes and breaking them into fragments, and troubleshooting when my puzzles didn't work as planned.

Lessons Learned: What I'd Do Differently

AI is a collaborator, not a magic solution. My first attempt at using AI to generate activities produced generic, disconnected ideas. It took iteration, different tools, and most importantly, my own instructional design thinking to shape those ideas into something pedagogically sound. Don't accept first drafts, from AI or yourself. For a more detailed look at how I used AI tools, check out Part 2.

Always verify technical outputs. When I asked AI to convert my final message into cipher code, the first response gave me random numbers that didn't match the cipher at all. Double-check anything that requires precision, especially if students will use it to progress through your activity.

Story before puzzles. I spent my early attempts focusing on clever puzzle mechanics and cool interactive features. But none of it mattered until I had a narrative thread that gave students a reason to care about completing each challenge.

Build in collaboration points. While my escape room can be completed individually, I designed it knowing students would work together. The consistent structure makes it easy for students to help each other without giving away answers.

For Educators Ready to Build Their Own

If you're considering creating an escape room for your course, here's my recommended process:

1. Start with learning outcomes. What do you want students to know, understand, or be able to do?
2. Develop your narrative. What's the story that connects your content? Why are students solving these puzzles?
3. Design for consistency. Establish clear patterns so students can focus on content, not mechanics.
4. Create progressive challenges. Each room or stage should build on the last and contribute to a final payoff.
5. Choose tools that serve your design. Don't let technology drive your pedagogy—use tools that help you execute your vision.
6. Test and iterate. Have a colleague or student try it before launching. They'll catch issues you won't see.

Looking Ahead

Building this escape room transformed a forgettable week into one of the most engaging activities in my course. The pedagogical principles I've shared here (narrative structure, consistency, progression, and clear learning goals) are what made the experience work for students.

But I'll be honest: creating this escape room would have taken weeks without help. In Part 2 of this series, I'll show you the AI-assisted workflow that allowed me to build this entire project in days rather than weeks. You'll learn which AI tools I used, how I prompted them effectively, what failed spectacularly, and the multi-tool collaboration process that accelerated every phase of development.

Whether you choose to use AI tools or not, the principles in this article will help you create engaging, immersive learning experiences. If you do decide to explore AI-assisted design, Part 2 will give you a practical roadmap for getting started.

Continue to Part 2

Quick Reference: Design Principles

Narrative Creates Engagement - Students need a story, not just puzzles
Consistency Reduces Cognitive Load - Establish patterns so students focus on content
Progression and Payoff - Build knowledge sequentially toward a meaningful conclusion

Tools Referenced in This Case Study

AI tools: Claude, custom GPT assignment bots (for brainstorming and puzzle creation)
Platform: ThingLink (for 360-degree interactive spaces)
Assets: Adobe Stock (360 images), Adobe Express (puzzle graphics)