The Effect of Pedagogical Agent Persona on Performance, Self-Efficacy, and Attitudes in Adult Learners in an Online Environment

Pedagogical agents, virtual avatars that are often included in online training or educational modules, have been studied in a variety of disciplines to determine the extent to which their inclusion in online or multimedia learning environments may influence both cognitive and affective outcomes in learners. The present study examined the effect of a peer-like pedagogical agent providing motivational messaging in an online English language learning environment to determine if the agent will positively affect college students’ performance, self-efficacy, and attitude in comparison to a control group. All participants studied an online, self-paced English grammar module, either with (treatment version) or without (control version) a peer-like motivating pedagogical agent. The study also sought to determine if learners would perceive the agent as having a distinct persona. The study found no statistically significant difference between the treatment group and the control group on performance, self-efficacy, and attitude. However, for both the treatment group and the control group, student performance and self-efficacy were significantly improved after the online English module. In addition, the participants perceived the agent as having a distinct persona

Pedagogical agents: Influences of artificially generated instructor personas on taking chances

Educational institutes are currently facing the new normality that an ongoing pandemic situation has brought to teaching and learning. Distributed learning with content that blends over several platforms and locations needs to be created with didactic expertise in a feasible manner. At the same time, the possibilities for creating and distributing digital content have developed rapidly. Advanced computing supports the creation of artificial images, natural speech, and even natural-looking but non-existent persons. Since such generative content is often also published under a Creative Commons license, it presents as viable option for designing learning content, assignments, or instructions for tasks. However, there is still limited evidence on how, for example, generated pedagogical agents (tutors) influence behaviour and decisions. This study investigated the influences of artificially generated tutor personas in a decision-making task distributed internationally on the Google Play store. The field experiment extended the balloon analogue risk task (BART) with instructions from generated persona photographs to evaluate potential influences on risk-taking behaviour. In a between-subject design, either a female tutor, a male tutor, or no tutor picture at all was presented during the task. The results (N=74) show a higher risk propensity when displaying a male artificial instructor compared to a female instructor. Participants also proceed with greater caution when instructed by a female tutor as they reflect longer before initiating the next step to pump up the balloon. Further lines of research and experiences from the distribution of an investigative instruction app on Google Play are summarised in the conclusive implications

Explicit Feedback Within Game-based Training: Examining The Influence Of Source Modality Effects On Interaction

This research aims to enhance Simulation-Based Training (SBT) applications to support training events in the absence of live instruction. The overarching purpose is to explore available tools for integrating intelligent tutoring communications in game-based learning platforms and to examine theory-based techniques for delivering explicit feedback in such environments. The primary tool influencing the design of this research was the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT), a modular domain-independent architecture that provides the tools and methods to author, deliver, and evaluate intelligent tutoring technologies within any training platform. Influenced by research surrounding Social Cognitive Theory and Cognitive Load Theory, the resulting experiment tested varying approaches for utilizing an Embodied Pedagogical Agent (EPA) to function as a tutor during interaction in a game-based environment. Conditions were authored to assess the tradeoffs between embedding an EPA directly in a game, embedding an EPA in GIFT’s browser-based Tutor-User Interface (TUI), or using audio prompts alone with no social grounding. The resulting data supports the application of using an EPA embedded in GIFT’s TUI to provide explicit feedback during a game-based learning event. Analyses revealed conditions with an EPA situated in the TUI to be as effective as embedding the agent directly in the game environment. This inference is based on evidence showing reliable differences across conditions on the metrics of performance and self-reported mental demand and feedback usefulness items. This research provides source modality tradeoffs linked to tactics for relaying training relevant explicit information to a user based on real-time performance in a game

Training Effects of Adaptive Emotive Responses From Animated Agents in Simulated Environments

Humans are distinct from machines in their capacity to emote, stimulate, and express emotions. Because emotions play such an important role in human interactions, human-like agents used in pedagogical roles for simulation-based training should properly reflect emotions. Currently, research concerning the development of this type of agent focuses on basic agent interface characteristics, as well as character building qualities. However, human-like agents should provide emotion-like qualities that are clearly expressed, properly synchronized, and that simulate complex, real-time interactions through adaptive emotion systems. The research conducted for this dissertation was a quantitative investigation using 3 (within) x 2 (between) x 3 (within) factorial design. A total of 56 paid participants consented to complete the study. Independent variables included emotion intensity (i.e., low, moderate, and high emotion), levels of expertise (novice participant versus experienced participant), and number of trials. Dependent measures included visual attention, emotional response towards the animated agents, simulation performance score, and learners\u27 perception of the pedagogical agent persona while participants interacted with a pain assessment and management simulation. While no relationships were indicated between the levels of emotion intensity portrayed by the animated agents and the participants\u27 visual attention, emotional response towards the animated agent, and simulation performance score, there were significant relationships between the level of expertise of the participant and the visual attention, emotional responses, and performance outcomes. The results indicated that nursing students had higher visual attention during their interaction with the animated agents. Additionally, nursing students expressed more neutral facial expression whereas experienced nurses expressed more emotional facial expressions towards the animated agents. The results of the simulation performance scores indicated that nursing students obtained higher performance scores in the pain assessment and management task than experienced nurses. Both groups of participants had a positive perception of the animated agents persona

The Impact of the Narrator’s Gender on Multimedia Learning

abstract: The utilization of multimedia videos has increasingly become more popular, especially in the field of education. In order to facilitate learning it is important to create a natural interaction between the learner and the on-screen material. This study focused on improving the facilitation of the information within a multimedia learning video by focusing on the gender and quality of computer-synthesized voices. Using a randomized pretest - posttest design the study looked at how the gender of the narrator affected a person's ability to learn and implement a new task. Narration was performed by a male and female, classic and modern synthesized voices to determine if there were gender effects across both generations of voices. The participants’ learned knowledge was assessed through a multiple-choice assessment and a word to image matching transfer assessment. Results showed no significant results. Future studies should consider a more reliable knowledge assessment and utilize and larger sample size.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Human Systems Engineering 201

Pedagogical Agents in Interactive Multimedia Modules: Issues of Variability

AbstractThis paper introduces the pedagogical agents and describes its characteristics and roles in multimedia modules. It will also include examples of the use of pedagogical agents in previous studies and effective use of pedagogical agents on learning. Next, pedagogical agent variability in terms of physical (ethnicity, gender, image, voice) and internal features (roles, communication and competency) will be discussed in the context of its impact on learners’ diversity. This is then followed by a discussion and suggestions for further research regarding the effective use of pedagogical agent in multimedia modules

The Effect of Story Narrative in Multimedia Learning

abstract: ELearning, distance learning, has been a fast-developing topic in educational area. In 1999, Mayer put forward “Cognitive Theory of Multimedia learning” (Moreno, & Mayer, 1999). The theory consisted of several principles. One of the principles, Modality Principle describes that when learners are presented with spoken words, their performance are better than that with on-screen texts (Mayer, R., Dow, & Mayer, S. 2003; Moreno, & Mayer, 1999).It gave an implication that learners performance can be affected by modality of learning materials. A very common tool in education in literature and language is narrative. This way of storytelling has received success in practical use. The advantages of using narrative includes (a) inherent format advantage such as simple structure and familiar language and ideas, (b) motivating learners, (c) facilitate listening, (d) oral ability and (e)provide schema for comparison in comprehension. Although this storytelling method has been widely used in literature, language and even moral education, few studies focused it on science and technology area. The study aims to test the effect of narrative effect in multimedia setting with science topic. A script-based story was applied. The multimedia settings include a virtual human with synthetic speech, and animation on a solar cell lesson. The experiment design is a randomized alternative- treatments design, in which participants are requested to watch a video with pedagogical agent in story format or not. Participants were collected from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Result of transfer score and retention score showed that no significant difference between narrative and non-narrative condition. Discussion was put forward for future study.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Engineering 201

Exploring the Impact of Inclusive PCA Design on Perceived Competence, Trust and Diversity

Pedagogical Conversational Agents (PCAs) conquer academia as learning facilitators. Due to user heterogeneity and need for more inclusion in education, inclusive PCA design becomes relevant, but still remains understudied. Our contribution thus investigates the effects of inclusive PCA design on competence, trust, and diversity awareness in a between-subjects experiment with two contrastingly designed prototypes (inclusive and non-inclusive PCA) tested among 106 German university students. As expected by social desirability, the results show that 81.5% of the probands consider an inclusive design important. However, at the same time, the inclusive chatbot is highly significantly rated as less competent. In contrast, we did not measure a significant effect regarding trust, but a highly significant, strongly positive effect on diversity awareness. We interpret these results with the help of the qualitative information provided by the respondents and discuss arising implications for inclusive HCI design

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