Narrative review: Immersive learning technologies and their role in moral and values-based education

Abstract

This review looks at how immersive learning technologies, especially augmented reality and virtual reality, can help teach values and ethics. The goal is to bring together what researchers have found, spot areas that need more study, and suggest ways to use these tools better in schools. As the world faces difficult challenges, it's more important than ever to teach students how to think ethically, feel empathy, and take responsibility for their actions. AR and VR create realistic, interactive experiences that let students explore moral choices and value-based situations. But the research on this topic is scattered, with mixed results and not much agreement on the best ways to use these technologies, how effective they are, or how to teach with them. To find the research, we looked in several databases like Scopus, ERIC, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, using keywords like immersive learning, AR/VR, moral education, ethics, and digital teaching. We included studies from 2015 to 2025 that looked at these technologies in high school or university settings and focused on teaching values or ethics. We also checked references from other studies to make sure we covered all relevant work. The review found that features like feeling present, taking someone else's point of view, and physically experiencing a situation help students engage more deeply and reflect on ethics. AR helps connect learning to real life, while VR is good for simulating moral choices. Even though some studies show short-term improvements in empathy and ethical thinking, there are still issues with how we measure these effects, the number of people studied, and how long the results last. There are also worries about fairness, access, and how well the ethical situations in these technologies are designed. These tools can be useful for teaching values if they're used with clear ideas and thoughtful reflection. Future research should look into creating learning experiences with input from teachers and students, developing better ways to measure progress, and making sure these tools work well for everyone, so that values education can be meaningful and fair in the digital world.