Conectado is a serious game aimed at youth ages 12-17 to raise awareness of cyberbullying through having the player experience being a victim over the course of 5 in-game days. It is a free, open-source graphic adventure game available in multiple languages. Over 1,400 students and teachers have used and evaluated the game, finding it significantly increased understanding of cyberbullying concepts. Gameplay data and surveys showed increased empathy and awareness of issues after playing. The game is designed to be used in classrooms, with teachers guiding discussion about players' experiences afterwards.

1. CONECTADO : SERIOUS GAME TO
PREVENT CYBERBULLYING
@baltafm
balta@fdi.ucm.es
Baltasar Fernandez-Manjon
Professor of Serious Games
Telefónica-UCM Honorary Chair in Digital Education and Serious Games.
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
(based on the PhD of Antonio Calvo Morata)
Madrid, 22 june 2021

2. Multiples approaches to fight (cyber)bullying

3. ● Conversational graphic adventure
● Target → 12-17 years old
● Game about (cyber)bullying
○ Player - Victim role
○ Increase empathy and awareness
● Conectado game as a supporting educational tool
○ Create a common experience for students (~40 min gameplay)
○ Teacher-guided reflection/discussion after playing
● Free and open source resource (github)
○ https://www.e-ucm.es/conectado (french, english and spanish languages)
Conectado: a Validated Serious Game

5. Theoretical support model

6. ● increase cyberbullying awareness (not knowledge)
● the user has to feel as the victim for 5 in-game days
● player always lose
○ impossible minigames as nightmares
● teachers can later work on the
common experience created by the game
Validated with +1400 users (teachers and students)
● combining surveys and learning analytics
○ users awareness (pre-post game by survey)
○ users choices in-game and gameplay time (game analytics)
Keep in mind that Conectado game

7. 1400
12
Teachers & Educational Sciences students Assessment
● 84 teachers and 104 degree students
● 99% see it as an applicable tool in class VS 1%
● 82% would use it in their class VS 2%
● 87% think that it is a effective tool VS 1%
Pre-Post Assessment 18 (cyber)bullying items
● 1200+ youngsters
● Significant increase of +0.54 over 7 points

8. Guide Assessment (acceptance, size and clarity)
● 20 teachers with +2 years of experience
● 90% like the guide vs 5%
The educational guide contains
● Introduction (bullying and serious games)
● Info about Conectado
● Guidance for teachers (game days and discussions)
● FAQs, bibliography and other resources about bullying
Educational guide for teachers

9. Game Learning Analytics process
Game Learning Analytics:
1. Students play the non
web-based games (e.g.
Conectado)
2. GLA system collects and
analyzes the interaction data
3. Visualizations and reports
(T-MON)
play
collection & analysis
reports
information
& feedback

10. xAPI Standard format
● Actor
● Verb
● Object
● (Result and Extensions)
● Timestamp
Data user interaction: xAPI serious game profile
Game information collected by analytics
● Changes between scenarios
● Interactions with objects and NPCs
● Dialogs (differences between gameplays)
● Choices (affect NPC responses)
● Changes in game variable values
○ In Conectado game
■ NPC friendships
■ in-game day progress
■ game ending (3 possible situations)

11. Data user interaction: Considerations
Game Learning Analytics is Not Informagic!!
● Educational design should guide both game design
and analytics design
○ the interaction data to be collected (the more the merrier)
○ the analyses to perform on the interaction data
■ from click-stream to educational insight
No meaningful information can be extracted without defining
the required data early on the design process!
Ethical and legal issues should be covered

12. Antonio Calvo-Morata, Cristina Alonso-Fernández, Manuel Freire, Iván Martínez-Ortiz, Baltasar Fernández-Manjón (2020):
Serious games to prevent and detect bullying and cyberbullying: a systematic serious games and literature review.
Computers & Education, Volume 157, November 2020, [2019 IF 5.296 JCR, Q1 in COMPUTER SCIENCE,
INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS]. DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103958.
Antonio Calvo-Morata (2020): Uso de Técnicas de Learning Analytics para la Validación, Mejora y Aplicación de Juegos
Serios en la Clase Aplicado al Ciberbullying. Tesis doctoral. Noviembre 2020. Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Antonio Calvo-Morata, Concha García-Diego, Manuel Freire, Iván Martínez-Ortiz, Baltasar Fernández-Manjón (2019):
Conectado in the classroom: applying a video game for the prevention of bullying at the school. 12th annual International
Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2019), 11th – 13th November, 2019, Seville (Spain).
Antonio Calvo-Morata, Manuel Freire, Iván Martínez-Ortiz, Baltasar Fernández-Manjón (2019): Applicability of a cyberbullying
videogame as a teacher tool: comparing teachers and educational sciences students. IEEE Access (in press), DOI:
10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2913573 [Q1 IF 3.557 JCR].
Antonio Calvo-Morata, Dan-Cristian Rotaru, Cristina Alonso-Fernandez, Manuel Freire, Iván Martínez-Ortiz, Baltasar
Fernández-Manjón (2018): Validation of a Cyberbullying Serious Game Using Game Analytics. IEEE Transactions on
Learning Technologies (in press), DOI: 10.1109/TLT.2018.2879354 [IF 1,869 JCR].
All publications & game available from www.e-ucm.es/conectado
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