Article for CLUEDUP in the journal (issue #12) of the School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Innovative training program with Escape Room

and Virtual Patient Technology utilisation

The Medical Physics and Digital Innovation Laboratory of the School of Medicine of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), with Scientific Supervising Professor Panagiotis Bamidis, in collaboration with Masaryk University (MUNI) in Brno, Czech Republic and Saint George’s University in London (SGUL), United Kingdom, in the context of Erasmus+ programs, collaborate and develop the innovative CLUEDUP project. Through this project, combined learning activities are promoted (CLA), as well as the integration of new technologies in education processes by utilizing Escape Rooms elements in PBL pedagogical learning models (problem-based learning), in the educational model TBL (team-based learning) and in FL (Flipped Learning).

The project objectives are:

• The design and implementation of training scenarios, focusing on trainees and based upon the Combined Learning Activity – CLA model

• The provision of a training program for teaching staff to facilitate creation of new CLAs

• Needs analysis, for the adaptation of pedagogical models of “collaborative learning” (TBL, PBL, FL) in an online course delivery, which is supported by the integration of the methodology of utilisation of escape rooms elements

• The support of effectiveness of the CLA model with research findings in cases of individual courses and

• The dissemination of project results, through the project website, by creating a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), by online conferences and seminars and other face to face communication events.

The CLUEDUP project innovates as it provides a pedagogical methodology focused on trainees, promotes independent learning, cultivates collaborative skills, provides upbringing through evaluations and is a financially viable technology integration solution in education, especially in conditions that require distance teaching, such as those of the pandemic COVID-19 and as a learning model that includes exercises with a playful character, which are especially popular with the younger generations. The project is aimed at both teachers and educators’ staff, aiming to raise awareness and information about the value of interactive collaborative learning, as well as trainees, aiming at their vocational training, through a teaching model that increases their active involvement, as well to policy makers by providing them with an educational methodology that meets the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic of improved and adapted, to the needs of the respective subject, online courses.

Panagiotis Bamidis

Professor, Scientific Responsible for CLUEDUP