Tom Mullaney

Author’s Note: Access to the digital breakout platform described in this post costs $60 for twelve months. BreakoutEDU also includes twelve months of access with the purchase of a kit. For more information, go to the BreakoutEDU pricing page. I was not compensated for writing this post.

Digital breakouts are a great way to engage learners by adding gamification to content. Until now, teachers hoping to create their own digital breakouts had to use Google Forms for the locks and a platform such as Google Sites. If you have no money to spend, go that route. Additionally, have a look at digital breakouts I created in Google Sites to use with your students or as inspiration for making your own.

Breakoutedu.com just launched a paid digital breakout tool that is super easy to use. No more using Response Validation to set locks. Point-and-click your way to easily created digital breakouts!

Get started by navigating to platform.breakoutedu.com. Create an account using social media, including Google.

After purchasing access, scroll to “Create a New Digital Breakout Game.” Click to get started.

Add a title and a description.

Below the game description is an option to set the game to individual locks or connected locks. Connected locks make for easier gameplay because learners have one task to focus on at a time.

Then choose the end of game reveal learners see after successfully cracking all locks.

Choose a type of lock to get started. Lock choices include text, number, directional, shape, and color. As locks are created, they become blue icons above the lock choices.

Setting locks are as easy as clicking. No coding or deeper understanding of Google Forms needed.

Each lock has the option to add an image, text, or video (use the YouTube or Google Drive embed code). The text option includes a text editor that has the ability to hyperlink to external sites.

After creating each lock, choose to save and add another lock, or save and exit.

Exiting the lock editor brings up the game sharing screen.

That’s it. Just that easy. Try the first game I created with this new platform below. It is a very simple game about Ronald Reagan that relies mostly on John Green’s Reagan Crash Course video. The play code is 6PE-G7C-XUG:

If you would like to share your thoughts with me, please comment below or tweet me at @TomEMullaney. Thank you for reading.