Especially at universities of applied sciences, the educational careers of first-year students vary greatly, and these differences must be addressed in order to ensure sustained success in their studies. Lectures with tutorials and final exams are a common means of imparting knowledge, but the number of participants often decreases at the end of the semester, especially in the first year, because self-determined, continuous learning must first be learned at the university. In addition to the technical-theoretical increase in knowledge, competencies such as problem-solving competence, critical thinking, ability for self-directed learning and self-motivation, knowledge management, media competence, communication and cooperation skills, intercultural and social competence, design and action competence, etc. must also be acquired. (competence model according to Lehmann/Nieke, 2000).
In the project „Chemification“ we want to create a playful introduction to the basics of general/ organic/ inorganic chemistry in the context of sustainability and environmental engineering (evaluation of situations, development of solution approaches, simulations, etc.). The emerging online escaperoom game offers a team-based approach to entering the learning environment at a university and reinforces problem-oriented, active discovery through own (virtual) experiences in solving subject- and application-related problems.
In doing so, the problem-solving processes promote independent knowledge and self-directed learning in stages from easy to difficult. This step-by-step process is accompanied during the attendance phases and the students go through it in groups, which gives them a good opportunity to form first social contacts or even fixed learning groups. In addition, they can use the time- and space-independent interactive online offering for in-depth study of the subject-specific teaching content already at the basic level by addressing practice-related issues arising from this content.