Creating empathetic graduates requires us to go beyond exams

In Hong Kong’s exam-driven learning culture, are students missing out on practising the soft skills they’ll need for the outside world? In my teaching, I’ve built in structured opportunities to help broaden their perspectives and develop a people-focused mindset. To do this, I’ve harnessed self-determination theory to inform my teaching and used immersive technology to develop students’ empathy. Here’s how it works. 

My pedagogical engine: self‑determination theory 

Self-determination theory is the idea that learners engage deeply and grow when they experience three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. I used self-determination theory to inform practical learning design decisions. 

For autonomy, I structure tasks with choices. 

For competence, I provide scaffolded challenges and timely feedback. 

For relatedness, I build collaborative learning communities so students can connect with each other, as well as stakeholders in the community, such as non-profit organisations.

Such autonomy-supportive teaching practices, such as offering rationales, acknowledging student perspectives and minimising controlling language, are linked to higher-quality motivation and deeper learning processes, according to educational research. 

Design thinking as a mindset – not just a process

I also use design thinking to help students move from problem talk to problem work. For me, a design thinking mindset  shapes how learners frame problems and pursue solutions perceptively, by building empathy and considering alternative perspectives. In my courses, students learn to practise empathy, holistic thinking, critical questioning, experimentation and creative thinking and focus on impact – skills that support human-centred problem solving. This maps neatly on to self-determination theory. 

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Empathy and holistic thinking support students’ relationship skills by practising seeing the world from the perspectives of different others; creative thinking and critical questioning support autonomy by encouraging students to understand the world in their own preferred way, and experimentation strengthens competence by creating mastery experiences through trial, feedback and refinement.

Starting point: accessible edtech for equitable participation

In university classrooms, the digital gap is a practical reality – students can have wildly different levels of confidence and familiarity with educational technologies. My goal is not simply more technology but more accessible technology: I design routines so every student can comfortably use core tools for collaboration and sense-making, making participation visible and inclusive. 

Within the self-determination theory framework and design thinking workflow, I use structured prompts and artefacts – such as inspiration cards and community mapping – to support students to frame real-world problems, surface assumptions and generate multiple solution pathways. 

These tools make abstract ideas workable, enabling students to collect and organise new information in creative ways, while maintaining analytical rigour. 

For example, a group of students used inspiration cards to explore their own cultural identity and offer solutions to policy leaders on how to promote students’ sense of belonging to Hong Kong and China. 

Immersive technology as empathy infrastructure 

Where my teaching becomes distinctly multimodal is in the integration of immersive environments and 360-degree video production (spherical videos). Students do more than read or discuss social issues; they experience contexts in ways that strengthen their ability to look at different perspectives and deepen their understanding of the realities some people are living. Immersive experiences can support learning by making environments more vivid, interactive and psychologically engaging, according to research.  

In the hybrid immersive virtual environment, students use the technology to take 360-degree videos of the community that they are interested in working with. In one of the students’ projects on foreign domestic workers, they filmed the workers’ daily life as a way of acquainting themselves with the community.

Students then come up with an online photovoice project to help these workers document their stories in Hong Kong and thereby increase multicultural awareness. 

When students step into a community setting through 360-degree narratives, they have a shared experiential anchor for interpretation: what needs are visible? Whose voices are missing? What constraints shape daily decisions? This can promote empathic reasoning – key competencies in human-centred inquiry.  

Finally, immersive tools support idea experimentation. Students can prototype and refine concepts iteratively, receiving immediate peer and instructor feedback – an instructional pattern that aligns with design thinking’s learning orientation. 

Studio-based multimodal scholarship

To make multimodal knowledge-sharing authentic, I use studio-based presentation formats. Students run interactive booths where evidence, prototypes, media artefacts and reflections are presented together in the form of an academic conference. Those in the same class will have the opportunity to interact with their peers to understand different projects interactively. 

Rather than the traditional form of a one-way presentation, the interactive booths value two way dialogue, where peers’ feedback is highly valued in the learning process.  

Student innovations as outcomes of co-production

When students learn through this self-determination theory × design thinking × immersive workflow, they come up with innovations that could make a real difference. Examples from my course have included: a virtual guide app for visually impaired theme-park visitors, an online shopping and telehealth platform for eczema patients, an AI robot supporting older adults’ medication management and an LGBTQ-inclusive kindergarten curriculum. 

These projects exemplify the arc of knowledge co-production: human-centred inquiry, multimodal data generation, immersive empathy work, iterative prototyping and public-facing communication oriented toward community impact.

Why this approach matters

My aim is to cultivate graduates who are not only academically capable but also empathetic, civically minded and creatively confident. Self-determination theory provides the motivational architecture. Design thinking provides a disciplined pathway from insight to action. Immersive technology offers experiential depth. 

Together, they transform social science education into an interactive, collaborative learning journey where students challenge ideas, learn from each other and develop solutions that matter.

Angel Lai is assistant professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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