Educational Scaffolding for Students Stuck in a Virtual World

Virtual worlds provide students with educational opportunities to explore and have experiences that are difficult to provide in reality. However, ensuring that students stay motivated and on task is important if the learning goals are to be achieved. Building on the findings of previous studies involving agent-based virtual worlds, adaptive collaborative learning and intelligent agents, we have designed an empathic intelligent virtual agent that provides educational scaffolding to encourage and support the students to understand what they are learning with less frustration. We have identified models of ‘stuck’ behaviour and corresponding empathic response patterns that we have incorporated into the behaviours of the intelligent virtual agents in the XXX Virtual World for science inquiry

Towards the improvement of self-service systems via emotional virtual agents

Affective computing and emotional agents have been found to have a positive effect on human-computer interactions. In order to develop an acceptable emotional agent for use in a self-service interaction, two stages of research were identified and carried out; the first to determine which facial expressions are present in such an interaction and the second to determine which emotional agent behaviours are perceived as appropriate during a problematic self-service shopping task. In the first stage, facial expressions associated with negative affect were found to occur during self-service shopping interactions, indicating that facial expression detection is suitable for detecting negative affective states during self-service interactions. In the second stage, user perceptions of the emotional facial expressions displayed by an emotional agent during a problematic self-service interaction were gathered. Overall, the expression of disgust was found to be perceived as inappropriate while emotionally neutral behaviour was perceived as appropriate, however gender differences suggested that females perceived surprise as inappropriate. Results suggest that agents should change their behaviour and appearance based on user characteristics such as gender

Physiological Measurement on Students’ Engagement In a Distributed Learning Environment

Measuring students’ engagement in a distributed learning environment is a challenge. In particular, a teacher gives a lecture at one location, while at the same time the remote students watch the lecture through a display screen. In such situation, it is difficult for the teacher to know the reaction at the remote location. In this paper, we conducted a field study to measure students’ engagement by using galvanic skin response (GSR) sensors, where students simultaneously watched the lecture at the two locations. Our results showed the students’ GSR response was aligned with the surveys, which means that during a distributed learning environment, GSR sensors can be used as an indicator on students’ engagement. Furthermore, our user studies resulted in non-engaging student learning experiences that would be difficult obtained at a lab condition. Based on the findings, we found that the patterns of GSR readings were rather different when compared to the previous relevant studies, where users were engaged. In addition, we noticed that the density of GSR response at the remote location was higher when compared to the one at the lecture room. We believe that our studies are beneficial on physiological computing, as we first presented the patterns of GSR sensors on non-engaging user experiences. Moreover, as an alternative method, GSR sensors can be easily implemented in a distributed learning environment to provide feedback to teachers

Avatars in education : age differences in avatar customization

The use of new technologies in education has become increasingly popular in recent years. One element that increases engagement in activity undertaken on electronic devices is the avatar - a virtual representation of the player. For online education to bring the expected results, it is important for users to choose the right avatar. The purpose of the article is to present existing data on the creation of avatars by people of different ages. Additionally, issues which deserve future consideration are suggested

Persuasive Gaming in Context

The rapid developments in new communication technologies have facilitated the popularization of digital games, which has translated into an exponential growth of the game industry in recent decades. The ubiquitous presence of digital games has resulted in an expansion of the applications of these games from mere entertainment purposes to a great variety of serious purposes. In this edited volume, we narrow the scope of attention by focusing on what game theorist Ian Bogost has called 'persuasive games', that is, gaming practices that combine the dissemination of information with attempts to engage players in particular attitudes and behaviors.This volume offers a multifaceted reflection on persuasive gaming, that is, on the process of these particular games being played by players. The purpose is to better understand when and how digital games can be used for persuasion by further exploring persuasive games and some other kinds of persuasive playful interaction as well. The book critically integrates what has been accomplished in separate research traditions to offer a multidisciplinary approach to understanding persuasive gaming that is closely linked to developments in the industry by including the exploration of relevant case studies

Cohousing IoT:Technology Design for Life In Community

This paper presents a research-through-design project to develop and interpret speculative smart home technologies for cohousing communities—Cohousing IoT. Fieldwork at multiple sites coupled to a constructive design research process led to three prototypes designed for cohousing communities: Cohousing Radio, Physical RSVP, and Participation Scales. These were brought back to the communities that inspired them as a form of evaluation, but also to generate new understandings of designing for cohousing. In discussing how they understand these prototypes, this paper offers an account of how research though design generates knowledge that is specific to the conditions and issues that matter to communities. This contributes to design research more broadly in two ways. First, it demonstrates how contemporary ideas of smart home technology are or could be made relevant to broader ways of living in the future. Second, it provides an example of how a design research process can serve to uncover community values, issues, and goals

The development and evaluation of an emotional support algorithm for carers

Peer reviewedPostprin

User Experience Design and Evaluation of Persuasive Social Robot As Language Tutor At University : Design And Learning Experiences From Design Research

Human Robot Interaction (HRI) is a developing field where research and innovation are progressing. One domain where Human Robot Interaction has focused is in the educational sector. Various research has been conducted in education field to design social robots with appropriate design guidelines derived from user preferences, context, and technology to help students and teachers to foster their learning and teaching experience. Language learning has become popular in education due to students receiving opportunities to study and learn any interested subjects in any language in their preferred universities around the world. Thus, being the reason behind the research of using social robots in language learning and teaching in education field. To this context this thesis explored the design of language tutoring robot for students learning Finnish language at university. In language learning, motivation, the learning experience, context, and user preferences are important to be considered. This thesis focuses on the Finnish language learning students through language tutoring social robot at Tampere University. The design research methodology is used to design the persuasive language tutoring social robot teaching Finnish language to the international students at Tampere University. The design guidelines and the future language tutoring robot design with their benefits are formed using Design Research methodology. Elias Robot, a language tutoring application designed by Curious Technologies, Finnish EdTech company was used in the explorative user study. The user study involved Pepper, Social robot along with the Elias robot application using Mobile device technology. The user study was conducted in university, the students include three male participants and four female participants. The aim of the study was to gather the design requirements based on learning experiences from social robot tutor. Based on this study findings and the design research findings, the future language tutoring social robot was co-created through co design workshop. Based on the findings from Field study, user study, technology acceptance model findings, design research findings, student interviews, the persuasive social robot language tutor was designed. The findings revealed all the multi modalities are required for the efficient tutoring of persuasive social robots and the social robots persuade motivation with students to learn the language. The design implications were discussed, and the design of social robot tutor are created through design scenarios