Erica Levi is the copyright lead at Lanchester Library, Coventry University. This is the second in a series of posts from her. Her team specialises in embedding Open Educational Resources in teaching at the university. She advises and trains colleagues on copyright and licences. Since copyright still seems like a dreary topic for most colleagues, Erica sets herself a mission to develop online educational games. She writes…..
I have come to recognise a reaction when I tell people my job involves copyright: the familiar glazing over of the eyes.
That has always bothered me. Advocating for copyright and helping colleagues engage with it are important parts of my role. But how do you make copyright interesting?
A straightforward training session can easily become a long list of dos and don’ts, and lists do not necessarily inspire. So, I started experimenting with something different: storytelling through games.
From telling to doing
Stories help us make sense of information and encourage us to care about what happens next. Games take this a step further by asking us to do something.
Combine the two, and the learner can become the protagonist.
Instead of saying, “Here is a copyright rule you need to remember”, we can present a problem: here is your mission; what are you going to do?
That idea led me to experiment with virtual escape rooms and branching scenarios.
With no budget, I started exploring tools that were free, accessible, and relatively easy to use, particularly Google Slides and Forms, and Twine, an open-source platform for creating nonlinear, interactive stories.
Eventually, I realised that the techniques we were developing could be useful to other educators too. The result is Click, Clue, Escape: A Practical Guide to Virtual Escape Rooms.
Part one walks through creating an escape room with Google Slides and Forms, while Part two explores Twine and shows how to build branching, choose-your-own-adventure-style experiences.
Although copyright was the problem that got me started, you can apply these techniques to almost any learning topic.
If you fancy experimenting yourself, have a look at Click, Clue, Escape. You can also explore some of the copyright games that inspired it on my games website.
Start with a learning outcome. Give it a story. Add a problem and a clue. Then give your learner something to do.
Perhaps the next time somebody hears the word copyright, instead of their eyes glazing over, they’ll want to know what happens next.
Erica Levi. (2026). “Click, Clue, Escape: making copyright training an adventure”. © Coventry University. Creative Commons Licence Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
