Serious Games Impact On Behaviour In School And The Web When so-called serious games for learning purposes first was introduced the focus was set on its benefits to provide a purposeful, fun way to develop cognitive change and knowledge. But can this non-traditional teaching tool also be a source of behavioural change? Research from the eConfidence project and Schoolnet shows that serious games can impact positively on students behaviour.

Serious Games impact

The research is based on a pilot study that was carried out throughout the academic year 2017 – 2018 with students aged 12-14. The participants in the study came from five schools in Spain and five schools from English-speaking countries (Malta, Ireland and UK). The analysis was conducted with a methodology for serious games development that was developed within the eConfidence project. This also included the development of the two games that were used in the project. School of Empathy, to encourage positive behavioural change facing bullying situations. And Go Online, to support a positive behavioural change in the area of the safe use of the internet. You can see the introduction to the games below. The main result of the study is:

“This brings us to the conclusion that a serious game can be efficient in changing students’ knowledge and behaviour only if it is tailored and adjusted to students’ existing knowledge over the topic, or the game should be applied to students with insufficient knowledge and inadequate behaviour.”

For more information about the eConfidence project click here and for the Booklet with the study’s results click here.