eConfidence: Resources to gain Confidence in behaviour changes through serious games
The EU-funded eConfidence project explored whether games can influence students' behaviour and learning. By studying tailored game design and player experience, the project found that immersion and perceived competence are key to driving positive behavioural and psychological outcomes. Serious games have become a popular tool for knowledge transfer and for promoting behavioural, perceptual, or cognitive change. However, the effectiveness of these games in influencing behaviour has been analysed in only a limited number of studies. In this context, the project Confidence in Behaviour Changes Through Serious Games—known by its acronym eConfidence—focused on testing whether the use of serious games could indeed lead to behavioural changes.
eConfidence was a 24-month project that began in November 2016, funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 732420). The project consortium included the Instituto Tecnológico de Castilla y León (Spain) as Project Coordinator, along with European Schoolnet (Belgium), Everis (Spain), Nurogames (Germany), the University of Salamanca (Spain), and the University of Rijeka – Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Croatia).
The final results of the project concluded that for a game to be effective in changing students' knowledge and behaviour, it should be tailored to their existing knowledge and behavioural patterns—or applied to students who demonstrate insufficient knowledge and inappropriate behaviour. The findings also highlighted the importance of players' experience with the game. Immersion and a sense of competence during gameplay were shown to contribute significantly to achieving positive psychological outcomes.
All project resources are available here.
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