Digital Games to Develop Empathy in Students: A Scoping Review

Abstract

ContextEmpathy is developed in learning contexts where the learner is familiar, similar, and proximal to the protagonist, which often poses a challenge in designing learning environments. Although technology can bridge the gap between learner and the context, research in this area is still in its infancy. Games and virtual reality, is frequently used to develop empathy and empathetic behaviors in medical, nursing, and allied health students. In line with this, Researchers suggest that digital games can aid educational institutions in fostering empathy among students. Purpose or GoalThis study aims to identify the games, the crucial elements that influence game design for empathy development, and how the elements map to the three dimensions of empathy: cognitive, affective and behavioral. Also, we present simple scenarios where the game can be redesigned to develop competency for engineering problem-solving by situating participants in different case studies, past, present, and futuristic. MethodsThis proposed study is a scoping review of the Scopus database for articles between 2013 and 2023. Based on the five-step methodological framework, 17 articles were included in the review. OutcomesIt is observed that narration, immersion, and interactivity play important roles in empathy development while supporting other game elements like role play, decision making, character identification, rules/tasks and challenges to develop empathy at different dimensions (cognitive, affective and behavior). ConclusionCombined with others, game elements like narration, immersion, and interaction contribute to different dimensions of empathy development. Further research is needed to establish a precise correlation between these elements and empathy dimensions, but the framework offers valuable guidance for game designers and researchers in this area.