Virtual world narratives for ethical decision making

This chapter outlines the opportunities presented by virtual worlds for engaging learners in ethical decision making through contextualized and participatory narratives. Virtual world narrative design is unpacked from two perspectives: a focus on implementation that outlines techniques for using virtual worlds to choreograph participatory narratives, and a conceptual perspective that assists understanding of how people may experience ethical problems through their participation in a virtual world narrative. Results are presented for nine participants in a twenty-minute Occupational Health and Safety narrative, with data collected from participants' performance in the narrative and subsequent reflections. The discussion examines how participants' experiences of ethical decision making were related to perception of ethical issues, formation of ethical judgments, and the generation of problems.