Keyword: «social and cultural space»

Gamification of the cognitive process in a higher educational institution contributes to the development of students’ communication skills, increasing their professional motivation, self-realization through the playing activities of didactic purpose. The inclusion of a quest as a technology that combines the ideas of problem-based and game-based learning is in line with the recommendations of UNESCO, the essence of the communicative approach in education. The authors study the issue of assessing the impact of graduate students' activities in designing educational space of escape rooms on the formation of their communicative competence. The purpose of the study is to examine the influence of the graduate students’ activities in designing the socio-cultural space of the escape room for the development of their communicative competence. The scientific novelty lies in revealing the characteristic aspects of the stage-by-stage work of specialists in the socio-cultural sphere in creating educational space of escape rooms: information-analytical; communicative; professionally oriented; collaborative. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the fact that the essence of the concept of an educational "escape room" for the training of specialists in the socio-cultural sphere has been concretized. The methodology is based on the analysis of the potential of the "quest" technology as a form of learning in the information environment. The concretization of methods of work with program resources for the area of training "Socio-cultural activity" (master’s degree level) was carried out. To design quest escape rooms, students used Power Point, MS Word, AXMA Story Maker, Learnis, Quandary, etc. When diagnosing the level of students' communicative competence, the "Communicative and organizational inclinations" method was used. The stages of graduate students’ work on the design of educational space of escape rooms are described in the results section: analysis of the demands of the digital society, the potentials of software resources; application of technology; thinking through the plot component; drawing up routes for the participants, a plan for dialogues between characters, etc. Bases of practice: the Museum of collectible dolls, the literary museum of I. S. Turgenev, the Art-Orel house, the house-museum of V. A. Rusanov, etc. The difficulties of innovations are formulated: the creative nature of the activity in the development of the socio-cultural plot and the content of the playing space; dependence on software support in cultural institutions; team-building problems. The practical significance lies in the fact that the results of the study can be used for gamification in sociocultural activities.