Educating moral sensitivity in business: An experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of a serious moral game
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Authors
Serious games have emerged as a promising new form of education and training. Even though the benefits of serious games for education are undisputed, there is still a further need for research on the efficacy of such games. The main goal of our research is to examine the effectiveness of a serious moral game—uFin: The Challenge—that was designed to promote moral sensitivity in business, a precondition of ethical decision-making and behavior and a core moral competency of moral intelligence. A second goal is to examine the role of metacognitive prompting and prosocial nudging in influencing learning effectiveness. Participants (N = 345) took part in an experimental game-based intervention study and completed a pre- and post-test questionnaire assessing moral sensitivity. The analyses of both questionnaire and game data suggest that merely playing this game is effective in promoting moral sensitivity. Neither self-reflection nor exposure to prosocial nudges, however, were determined to be factors that improve learning effectiveness. In contrast, those interventions even decreased the learning outcome in some cases. Overall, findings demonstrate the potential for game-based learning in the moral domain. An important avenue for future research is to examine others ways of increasing the effectiveness of the game.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 104381 |
| Journal | Computers and Education |
| Volume | 178 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| ISSN | 0360-1315 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01.03.2022 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
Proponents of serious games have highlighted numerous potential benefits of such tools compared to conventional teacher-centered approaches (e.g., Guillén-Nieto & Aleson-Carbonell, 2012; Rieber, Smith, & Noah, 1998). The enthusiasm for serious games rests, for example, on the potential to motivate individuals from the narrative, interactive and multimedia nature of gaming. Such a context not only encourages personal involvement but also improves learning and memory retention (Westera, 2017; Wouters, van Nimwegen, van Oostendorp, & van der Spek, 2013). Serious games provide opportunities for repeated practice and feedback, thereby supporting behavioral regulation and habit change (Aldrich, 2009; Prensky, 2007). They simulate typical features of real-life situations, not only supporting the process of sensemaking but also the transfer from learning to practice (Nicholson, 2015). Furthermore, serious games allow people to explore alternative ways of behaviors in a “safe” environment, which supports the acquisition of tacit knowledge (Jansz, 2005; Kirriemuir & McFarlane, 2004; Westera, 2017).This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant CR11I1-159279/1) and the Karl Schlecht Stiftung. We would like to thank Laura Vernazza, Therese Albert, Alexander Götz, Natal Marjakaj, and Debora Bamert for their help in carrying out the studies.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant CR11I1-159279/1 ) and the Karl Schlecht Stiftung . We would like to thank Laura Vernazza, Therese Albert, Alexander Götz, Natal Marjakaj, and Debora Bamert for their help in carrying out the studies.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
- 21st century abilities, Adult learning, Games, Post-secondary education, Teaching/learning strategies
- Management studies