## 4 Discussion
### Limitations and Further Research  
This study suggests that the R2S education platform has great benefits among secondary school students in Belgium. Although this study has some strengths, the following limitations should be considered when analyzing the findings and designing subsequent research. First, the cross-sectional design restrains the authors from establishing causality and identifying long-term changes in reaction to the platform, which is why a longitudinal setup is needed. Future research should employ longitudinal designs to track students' progress over time, allowing for a better understanding of the platform sustained impact on knowledge retention and behavioural changes. Additionally, the fact that the students were volunteers may mean that their outcome differs from the rest of the cohort due to self-selection bias, and the results may portray the platform as more effective than it is. Future studies should consider using randomized controlled trials or sampling methods that mitigate self-selection bias to obtain results more representative of the general student population. A potential limitation of the R2S platform is that it does not show actual behavior in traffic situations. While it effectively measures virtual and reported behavior, the absence of real-world behavior analysis limits its applicability to real traffic scenarios. Future research should incorporate observational studies or real-life simulations to measure students' actual behavior in traffic settings and assess how the platform translates into practical safety skills. This would help bridge the gap between theoretical learning and real-world application. A potential limitation of the survey is the risk of socially desirable answering, particularly in questions related to self-reported risk behaviors. Although anonymous reporting was applied to the task to reduce these concerns, it remains probable that participants may have described behaviors in a manner they deemed less objectionable. It is recommended that future studies use additional procedures, including but not limited to mixed-methods analysis or observational data, to reduce this bias to a further extent. The R2S platform does not integrate a level of competition with the participants. Future research could explore incorporating competitive elements, such as leaderboards or team challenges, to enhance engagement and motivation while assessing their effectiveness in improving learning outcomes. The study area coverage was focused on the Flemish area, which may limit the generalization of results to other places with different traffic practices or teaching methodologies. Future research should explore the platform effects in diverse geographic and cultural contexts to enhance generalizability, assessing its adaptability to various traffic safety norms and educational environments. This study also focused on performance within the R2S platform without directly assessing the real-world application of the acquired knowledge and skills. Future studies could incorporate follow-up assessments or observational methods to assess how students apply the skills learned through the R2S platform in real-life traffic situations. The absence of qualitative data (e.g., interviews and focus groups) may have missed valuable insights into students' experiences. Incorporating qualitative data would provide deeper insights into the participants' perceptions, engagement levels, and attitudes towards the R2S education platform. This study also collected limited demographic information, considering only gender and school year, without examining potentially relevant factors like socioeconomic status, prior traffic education, or personal experiences with road accidents. Future research should include a broader range of demographic variables, such as socioeconomic background and previous exposure to traffic safety education, to identify potential moderating factors that could influence platform effectiveness.