Let's Set Up Some Subgoals: Understanding Human-Pedagogical Agent Collaborations and Their Implications for Learning and Prompt and Feedback Compliance

International audienceResearch on collaborative learning between humans and virtual pedagogical agents represents a necessary extension to recent research on the conceptual, theoretical, methodological, analytical, and educational issues behind co-and socially-shared regulated learning between humans. This study presents a novel coding framework that was developed and used to describe collaborations between learners and a pedagogical agent (PA) during a subgoal setting activity with MetaTutor, an intelligent tutoring system. Learner-PA interactions were examined across two scaffolding conditions: prompt and feedback (PF), and control. Learners' compliance to follow the PA's prompts and feedback in the PF condition were also examined. Results demonstrated that learners followed the PA's prompts and feedback to help them set more appropriate subgoals for their learning session the majority of the time. Descriptive statistics revealed that when subgoals were set collaboratively between learners and the PA, they generally lead to higher proportional learning gains when compared to less collaboratively set goals. Taken together, the results provide preliminary evidence that learners are both willing to engage in and benefit from collaborative interactions with PAs when immediate, directional feedback and the opportunity to try again are provided. Implications and future directions for extending co-and socially-shared regulated learning theories to include learner-PA interactions are proposed

Using an animated pedagogical agent to support motivation, reflected in task persistence, by delivering formative assessment at classroom level

https://www.ester.ee/record=b5510786*es

Conversational Agents in Education – A Systematic Literature Review

Conversational Agents (CAs) are widely spread in a variety of domains, such as health and customer service. There is a recent trend of increasing publications and implementations of CAs in education. We conduct a systematic literature review to identify common methodologies, pedagogical CA roles, addressed target groups, the technologies and theories behind, as well as human-like design aspects. The initially found 3329 records were systematically reduced to 252 fully coded articles. Based on the analysis of the codings, we derive further research streams. Our results reveal a research gap for long-term studies on the use of CAs in education, and there is insufficient holistic design knowledge for pedagogical CAs. Moreover, target groups other than academic students are rarely considered. We condense our findings in a morphological box and conclude that pedagogical CAs have not yet reached their full potential of long-term practical application in education

Learning designs incorporating animated pedagogical agents: Their potential for improving academic writing competence, writing self-efficacy, and reducing writing anxiety

Academic writing can be extremely challenging, especially for new university students. This is compounded by the mass-migration of courses to online delivery, which further increases the complexity of acquiring writing skills. Animated pedagogical agents (APAs) have shown promise in addressing these problems, because they simulate authentic face-to-face social interactions thereby potentially increasing student engagement, motivation, and favourable emotions conducive to learning. This study’s first aim was to examine the impact of learning designs employing APAs on novice learners’ academic writing, writing anxiety, and writing self-efficacy. Its second aim was to examine the influence of various delivery options (didactic delivery or scaffolded questioning) with support messages (emotional, motivational or neither) on writing competence, writing anxiety and writing self-efficacy. These aims were achieved in a mixed-method study that included six experimental conditions tested using two multimedia academic writing lessons provided to 106 participants who were new to Australian tertiary studies. Quantitative data were collected immediately before and after the lessons (Phase 1), while qualitative data were obtained by interviews with a subset of participants after Lesson 2 (Phase 2). The impact of the independent variable combinations on the dependent variables were examined quantitatively (General Linear Modelling, t-tests) and qualitatively (thematic analysis). The results demonstrate that completing two academic writing lessons with APAs can increase writing competence and self-efficacy, and reduce writing anxiety. However, no significant differences were found between the support and delivery groups. Despite the lack of significant inter-group differences, more participants from the emotional group reported that their negative emotions were reduced because of the lesson. Also, all the participants in the motivational group reported perceptions of writing improvement as a result of attending the lessons. The overall positive result suggests promising possibilities for writing support delivered online to counter student under preparedness for academic writing

The Cognitive-Affective-Social Theory of Learning in digital Environments (CASTLE)

For a long time, research on individuals learning in digital environments was primarily based on cognitive-oriented theories. This paper aims at providing evidence that social processes affect individual learning with digital materials. Based on these theories and empirical results, a social-processes-augmented theory is suggested: the Cognitive-Affective-Social Theory of Learning in digital Environments (CASTLE). This CASTLE postulates that social cues in digital materials activate social schemata in learners leading to enhanced (para-)social, motivational, emotional, and metacognitive processes. To substantiate this theory, socio-cognitive theories are used, which predict social influences on learning with digital materials. Besides, previous empirical findings are presented assuming that with a rising number of social cues in digital materials, the influence of social processes increases. Finally, consequences regarding the design of digital learning media are discussed

Designing an engaging learning universe for situated interactions in virtual environments

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)Studies related to the Virtual Learning approach are conducted almost exclusively in Distance Learning contexts, and focus on the development of frameworks or taxonomies that classify the different ways of teaching and learning. Researchers may be dealing with the topic of interactivity (avatars and immersion are key components), yet they do so they mainly focusing on the interactions that take place within the virtual world. It is the virtual world that consists the primary medium for communication and interplay. However, the lines are hard to be drawn when it comes to examining and taxonomising the impact of interactions on motivation and engagement as a synergy of learners’ concurrent presence. This study covers this gap and sheds light on this lack—or, at least, inadequacy—of literature and research on the interactions that take place both in the physical and the virtual environment at the same time. In addition, it explores the impact of the instructional design decisions on increasing the learners’ incentives for interplay when trying to make sense of the virtual world, thus leading them to attain higher levels of engagement. To evaluate the potential of interactions holistically and not just unilaterally, a series of experiments were conducted in the context of different Hybrid Virtual Learning units, with the participation of Computer Science & Technology students. One of the goals was to examine the learners’ thoughts and preconceptions regarding the use of virtual worlds as an educational tool. Then, during the practical sessions, the focus was placed on monitoring students’ actions and interactions in both the physical and the virtual environment. Consequently, students were asked as a feedback to report their overall opinion on these actions and interactions undertaken. The study draws a new research direction, beyond the idea of immersion and the development of subject-specific educational interventions. The conclusions provide suggestions and guidelines to educators and instructional designers who wish to offer interactive and engaging learning activities to their students, as well as a taxonomy of the different types of interactions that take place in Hybrid Virtual Learning contexts

Adapting Progress Feedback and Emotional Support to Learner Personality

Peer reviewedPostprin

Digital Assistants for Self-Regulated Learning: Towards a State-Of-The-Art Overview

We observe a continuous shift from face-to-face to hybrid or online education. Today, learners are exposed to a high level of autonomy and, at the same time, have less contact with peers and teachers. In this environment, the ability to self-regulate one’s learning is becoming more relevant to achieve positive learning results and academic success. However, the application of self-regulated learning is not trivial. A potential solution for this challenge comes in the form of digital assistants like chatbots or pedagogical agents that provide structure for the learners. Existing research on digital assistants for self-regulated learning is scattered across several fields. In this research-in-progress paper, we present preliminary results of a systematic literature review (SLR) study providing an overview of the state-of- the-art of digital assistants supporting SRL. Our results show that future research in this domain should focus on affect, behavioral, and context regulation and more longitudinal studies are required

Designing Embodied Interactive Software Agents for E-Learning: Principles, Components, and Roles

Embodied interactive software agents are complex autonomous, adaptive, and social software systems with a digital embodiment that enables them to act on and react to other entities (users, objects, and other agents) in their environment through bodily actions, which include the use of verbal and non-verbal communicative behaviors in face-to-face interactions with the user. These agents have been developed for various roles in different application domains, in which they perform tasks that have been assigned to them by their developers or delegated to them by their users or by other agents. In computer-assisted learning, embodied interactive pedagogical software agents have the general task to promote human learning by working with students (and other agents) in computer-based learning environments, among them e-learning platforms based on Internet technologies, such as the Virtual Linguistics Campus (www.linguistics-online.com). In these environments, pedagogical agents provide contextualized, qualified, personalized, and timely assistance, cooperation, instruction, motivation, and services for both individual learners and groups of learners. This thesis develops a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and user-oriented view of the design of embodied interactive pedagogical software agents, which integrates theoretical and practical insights from various academic and other fields. The research intends to contribute to the scientific understanding of issues, methods, theories, and technologies that are involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of embodied interactive software agents for different roles in e-learning and other areas. For developers, the thesis provides sixteen basic principles (Added Value, Perceptible Qualities, Balanced Design, Coherence, Consistency, Completeness, Comprehensibility, Individuality, Variability, Communicative Ability, Modularity, Teamwork, Participatory Design, Role Awareness, Cultural Awareness, and Relationship Building) plus a large number of specific guidelines for the design of embodied interactive software agents and their components. Furthermore, it offers critical reviews of theories, concepts, approaches, and technologies from different areas and disciplines that are relevant to agent design. Finally, it discusses three pedagogical agent roles (virtual native speaker, coach, and peer) in the scenario of the linguistic fieldwork classes on the Virtual Linguistics Campus and presents detailed considerations for the design of an agent for one of these roles (the virtual native speaker)

How do Pedagogical Conversational Agents affect Learning Outcomes among High School Pupils: Insights from a Field Experiment

Pedagogical conversational agents (CA) support formal and informal learning to help students achieve better learning outcomes by providing information, guidance or fostering reflections. Even though the extant literature suggests that pedagogical CAs can improve learning outcomes, there exists little empirical evidence of what design features drive this effect. This study reports on an exploratory field experiment involving 31 pupils in commercial high schools and finds that students achieved better learning outcomes when preparing for their tests with a pedagogical CA than without. However, the drivers of this effect remain unclear. Neither the use frequency of the design features nor the pupils’ expectations towards the CA could explain the improvement in marks. However, for the subjective perception of learning achievement, pupils’ expectations was a significant predictor. These findings provide support for the use of pedagogical CAs in teaching but also highlight that the drivers of better learning outcomes still remain unknown