Educational benefits of serious games in the context of a H2020 research project about bullying and safe use of the Internet

The benefits of incorporating digital games into the educational environment are not exclusively motivational. A school environment enriched with the features of games can allow students to develop their own pace through individual feedback, in addition to strengthening skills such as problem-solving, collaboration and communication. In order to contribute to the research in the field of Serious Games in education we are working on the eConfidence project. This project includes the analysis of the benefits of two serious games in the change of behavior and attitudes in teenagers, towards the safe use of the Internet and the dangers of bullying. eConfidence is a 24 months project that started in November 2016 and has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ref. No732420). In this paper, we will contextualize the project with a theoretical review about serious games, benefits of games, 181 experiments using serious games in education, and issues about bullying and the safe use of the Internet. Then, we will explain the features of the project and its possible contributions in the field of education.