Walking in Someone’s Virtual Shoes: Virtual Worlds as a Tool for Developing Empathy

Empathy is an important skill for leaders. It is proposed that virtual worlds can be used effectively as a tool in developing empathy, especially perspective taking. This emerging stream of research explores the use of virtual worlds and avatar manipulation as a means to evoke perspective taking in leadership students. It is proposed that due to the Proteus Effect, virtual world users will change their behavior in a role-play based on their avatar’s appearance. Further, it is proposed that this change in behaviors will lead to more insight into the perspectives of different others in a similar real world situation

Virtual World Collaboration and Leadership: Effects on Team Process and Outcomes

While the use of virtual worlds for business collaboration has increased, there has been no systematic research to date that examines the effects of virtual worlds on socio-emotional communication, which is considered to influence team performance variables, such as consensus and group cohesion. To increase our understanding of the effects of virtual worlds, this study seeks to explore: 1) the effects of communication medium (Second Life versus instant messaging) and leadership style (transformational versus transactional) on supportive and critical communication, and 2) the effects of supportive and critical communication on cohesion, consensus, and group efficacy. Through two experiments of small, ad hoc groups performing a management decision-making task, we found an interaction effect between communication medium and leadership style on the expression of support. We also found that greater expression of support can lead to higher group cohesion, post-discussion consensus, and group efficacy whereas critical communication can lead to lower efficacy and group cohesion. We discuss implications of these results for both theory and practice

The Effectiveness of Virtual Worlds for Education: An Empirical Study

Despite the widespread popularity of using virtual worlds for education, only a few studies have compared learning outcomes in virtual worlds versus other, less resourceintensive media. A withinsubjects study examined cognitive and affective learning outcomes when using a virtual world and voiceover slide presentations to learn about the Forbidden City in China. Results show that learners consistently reported higher perceived learning and satisfaction with learning in the virtual world than when using voiceover presentations, even when scores on tests of declarative knowledge were lower when learning in the virtual world if the virtual world was used first. An interaction effect between learning method and learning method order indicates that simply using a virtual world is not sufficient to improve cognitive learning outcomes

Gender Effects in Directed versus Incidental Learning in a 3D Virtual World Simulation

Virtual worlds have the potential to enable and enhance online learning outcomes. Because learning in three-dimensional (3D) designed learning spaces depends on learners’ spatial processing abilities, we need to understand how these abilities may affect online learning outcomes. Building on the hunter-gatherer theory of gender difference in spatial abilities, we examined how gender interacts with learning type (directed vs. incidental) to affect learning in virtual world (VR) simulations of objects. Specifically, we theorized that men’s and women’s spatial abilities would lead to differential outcomes based on the type of learning that the instructor designed. Using a between-subjects 2 x 2 factorial design (directed vs. incidental learning and male vs. female), we found that incidental learning benefited women and that directed learning benefited men. Our findings counter the traditional view that males outperform females in learning tasks that engage spatial abilities in a virtual world. We urge educators to consider such gender effects on learning when employing VR simulations of objects