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International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik

WI 2021: Innovation Through Information Systems pp 462–476Cite as

Designing an Adaptive Empathy Learning Tool

Part of the Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation book series (LNISO,volume 46)

Abstract

Empathy is a fundamental competency for daily communication, interaction, and teamwork, and thus most relevant for future jobs. Nevertheless, educational organizations are limited in providing the necessary conditions for students to develop empathy skills, due to traditional large-scale and distance-learning scenarios. In this paper, we present insights on how to design an adaptive learning tool that helps students to develop their ability to react to other people’s observed experiences through individual feedback independent of an instructor, time and location. Based on theoretical insights of 110 papers and 28 user interviews, we propose preliminary design principles for an adaptive empathy learning tool. Moreover, we evaluate the design principles as an instantiated prototype in a proof-of-concept evaluation with 25 students. The results indicate that an empathy learning tool based on the presented design knowledge seems to be a promising approach to help students to improve their empathy skills in different learning scenarios.

Keywords

  • Empathy learning
  • Adaptive skill learning
  • Cognitive dissonance theory
  • Design science research

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Being aware that empathy is a multidimensional construct, in this study we focus on the emotional and cognitive empathy [2, 25].

  2. 2.

    marvelapp.com

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Information Management, University of St. Gallen (HSG), St.Gallen, Switzerland

    Thiemo Wambsganss

  2. University of Kassel, Information Systems and Systems Engineering, Kassel, Germany

    Florian Weber & Matthias Söllner

Authors
  1. Thiemo Wambsganss
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  2. Florian Weber
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  3. Matthias Söllner
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Correspondence to Thiemo Wambsganss .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

    Prof. Dr. Frederik Ahlemann

  2. Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

    Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schütte

  3. Department of Computer Science and Applied Cognitive Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

    Prof. Dr. Stefan Stieglitz

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Wambsganss, T., Weber, F., Söllner, M. (2021). Designing an Adaptive Empathy Learning Tool. In: Ahlemann, F., Schütte, R., Stieglitz, S. (eds) Innovation Through Information Systems. WI 2021. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86790-4_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86790-4_31

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