Supporting digital empathy in OU tutor-student communications

Project leader(s):  Scott Harvey-Whittle Alison Condliffe Laura Niada

• Theme:  Supporting students
• Project faculties:  OpenSU
• Status:  Current
• Date:  September 2026 to December 2027

Introduction

To identify original and achievable initiatives to advance the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), the student members of the eSTEeM reference panel adopted an innovative methodology to guide project selection, leveraging M365 Co-Pilot as a strategic tool for exploration.

Through a collaborative evaluation process, the team ultimately selected a project exploring "digital empathy", which resonated with their collective objectives and core values, but which had not previously been investigated in eSTEeM projects.

Face-to-face interactions incorporate cues from facial expressions and body language, which are lacking in digital communications. 'Digital empathy’ is defined by Terry and Cain (2016) as ‘the traditional empathic characteristics such as concern and caring for others expressed through computer-mediated communications.’ A more complex definition is provided by Friesem (2015), who states that ‘digital empathy explores the ability to analyse and evaluate another’s internal state (empathy accuracy), have a sense of identity and agency (self-empathy), recognize, understand and predict other’s thoughts and emotions (cognitive empathy), feel what others feel (affective empathy), role play (imaginative empathy), and be compassionate to others (empathic concern) via digital media.’ Digital empathy involves understanding and supporting the feelings of others whilst using virtual communications such as email, forum posts and tutorial chats, such that all parties feel respected and included.

The OU is an online University; hence students may feel isolated or ‘invisible’. It is important for tutors to be able to establish digital empathy to support their students. This project aims to help them to optimise digital empathy when communicating with and supporting their students.

Approach

• Stage 1. We will generate a survey questionnaire asking students for their views on digital empathy in tutor-student communications (including emails, forums, tutorials and TMA feedback). The survey will be administered via JISC, a secure, web-based system for creating, distributing, and analysing questionnaires, and will be advertised via the virtual learning environment of the relevant modules.  We will survey four level 2 modules, selected to provide a target audience of at least 1000 students per module and to span a wide range of STEM subjects.  We have chosen to focus on Level 2 modules as these students will already have experienced a wide range of digital communications originating from several different tutors. Possible modules for inclusion are Computing and Information Technology M250 (‘Object-orientated Java Programming’), Mathematics and Statistics M248 (‘Analysing Data’), Environment S226 (Environmental Science’) and Science S296 (‘Cell and Molecular Biology’).
• Stage 2. We will analyse the results of the questionnaire to assess how students feel about their tutors’ digital empathy and whether there are any problem areas in these communications that might benefit from additional resources.
• Stage 3. 10-20 students who responded to the above survey will be recruited to participate in focus groups to discuss digital empathy in tutor-student communications, with a focus on any areas where improvements might be made and how such improvements might feasibly be made.
• Stage 4. We will conduct semi-structured interviews with 3-5 members of the focus groups, chosen to span different perspectives, in order to obtain greater in-depth insights. Although it is possible the views of the students may be shaped by participating in the focus groups, this may allow us to achieve a broader and more balanced set of opinions that better represents a consensus view of digital empathy.
• Stage 5. We will analyse the data from the focus groups and interviews using NVivo software and integrate with the survey data. We will compile a report of our findings for dissemination, including recommendations and plans for future stages of this project.

Outcomes and impact

Our initial survey will inform current student views on digital empathy, in itself a novel and important finding. The focus groups and interviews will add additional depth to the survey findings. The report compiled to summarise our findings will be a resource for academics and will guide future stages of this research.