Lauren Baidjoe on the MicroLab "Escapegame - How to motivate students with game-based learning elements"

Lauren Baidjoe is a clinical pharmacist at Erasmus MC and is involved in various educational projects. In October 2024, she completed the University Teaching Qualification (UTQ). Shortly after, in November, she participated in the MicroLab Escape Game: how to motivate students with game-based learning elements.

Lauren: "During my UTQ, I first heard about the MicroLabs. At that time, we were working on developing a new lesson on patient and medication safety within the medical curriculum [ErasmusArts 2030]. Since medication safety isn't necessarily exciting, we wanted to explore how we could approach it in a fun way. The idea of a skills lab had already been floating around in our minds, so I thought: the MicroLab could really be useful here!"

The MicroLab provided valuable insights: "During the MicroLab, we received a printout with aspects that are important when developing an escape room. With our team, we tried to further develop our skills lab using the framework, and we realized that there were still some things missing or underestimated, like the scope or preparation. It's easy to come up with a skills lab that, for example, has a doll in a bed and dangerous situations in the room, but the real challenge lies in the practical implementation. For example, how do you evaluate student performance? Those are things I've started thinking about more after the MicroLab."

Although the skills lab is still in the brainstorming phase, Lauren has already drawn inspiration from the MicroLab and applied it to other educational activities: "During the MicroLab, the website page TeachEUR was introduced. There, you can find all sorts of ways to activate your students or present assignments in a different way. It’s pages full of ideas. Soon, I'm going to give a clinical lesson to a group of pharmacy assistants, and I think: yes, I want to make it a bit more creative. And that's where I'll be going for inspiration."

When asked if Lauren would recommend the MicroLab to other teachers, she answered enthusiastically, "Yes, and purely for thinking more outside of the box. Education doesn’t always have to take place in a traditional classroom setting, or with only teachers speaking and students listening. Getting a little more creative, I do like that”.