Bridging the University-Industry Gap: Using Virtual Escape Rooms to Assess Civil Engineering Students' Skills

Shayan Hojatpanah ¹ ( PhD Candidate, Department of Construction and Engineering Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Aras International Campus, Iran )
S. Vahid Faghihi ² ( Assistant Professor, Construction Engineering and Management, School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran )
Ahad Nazari ³ ( Associate Professor, Department of Construction, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Tehran, Iran )
Seyed Hossein Hosseini Nourzad ⁴ ( Associate Professor, Department of Construction and Project Management, School of Architecture, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran )

Submited date : 2025-12-28 Accepted date : 2026-10-12

Keywords: University–Industry Gap, Gamification, Virtual Reality, Escape Room, Competency Assessment,

Abstract :

The gap between competencies acquired at university and the performance requirements of the workplace is a major challenge in civil engineering education. Conventional assessment methods primarily focus on measuring knowledge and final outcomes, potentially providing limited opportunities to observe students’ decision-making processes, interactions, and performance in complex engineering situations. This study proposes a conceptual framework for assessing civil engineering students’ competencies in a virtual-reality escape-room environment. Adopting a descriptive-analytical approach, the study followed three stages: literature review, analysis of relevant components, and conceptual synthesis and mapping. The findings resulted in a three-layer architecture comprising experience, assessment, and feedback, alongside an operational structure consisting of eight pillars: players, goals, rules, resources, constraints, interaction, actions and choices, and outcomes. Within this framework, the simulated escape room provides opportunities for students to engage with engineering problems, constraints, and decisions, while generating performance data—including information reviewed, actions taken, choices made, interactions, and decision outcomes—that serve as evidence for assessment. A conceptual scenario titled “Escape Room: Project Rescue” is presented to illustrate the framework's potential applications. The framework also maps these performance data to seven ABET-based engineering competencies. Overall, the proposed framework may inform the development of performance-based assessment approaches and provide supplementary evidence about civil engineering students’ competencies in future studies

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