Examining the Impact of Pedagogical Agents on Students Learning Experience in Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds constitute an important part of the educational landscape that possesses unique learning capabilities and opens up new horizons in education. A vital part of 3D virtual worlds concerns the intelligent pedagogical agents that are integrated in the environments and aim to improve the interaction with the users and enhance their learning experience. The main purpose of this study is to assess the impact that the pedagogical agents have on students' engagement and learning experiences during training activities in virtual worlds. Specifically, we examine how students perceive the role of pedagogical agents as learning companions during specific exercises and activities and the impact that the guidance offered via pedagogical agents has on students' engagement and learning. In this regard, an experimental evaluation study was designed and performed in a 3D virtual world educational environment that is used to assist students in learning aspects of environmental engineering. The results of the study show that the assistance and the help offered to students via pedagogical agents have great impact on students' engagement and improved their learning experiences.

[1]  Ioannis Hatzilygeroudis,et al.  An Innovative Educational Environment Based on Virtual Reality and Gamification for Learning Search Algorithms , 2016, 2016 IEEE Eighth International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E).

[2]  James C. Lester,et al.  The persona effect: affective impact of animated pedagogical agents , 1997, CHI.

[3]  Konstantinos Chorianopoulos,et al.  The effects of Avatars’ Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Online 3D Virtual Worlds , 2010 .

[4]  George Veletsianos,et al.  Pedagogical Agents , 2013 .

[5]  Patricia D. Mautone,et al.  Social cues in multimedia learning: Role of speaker's voice. , 2003 .

[6]  Christian Gütl,et al.  Implementing Intelligent Pedagogical Agents in virtual worlds: Tutoring natural science experiments in OpenWonderland , 2013, 2013 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON).

[7]  Barney Dalgarno,et al.  What are the learning affordances of 3-D virtual environments? , 2010, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[8]  Heather H. Mitchell,et al.  Social Cues in Animated Conversational Agents , 2005 .

[9]  Thomas Chesney,et al.  Virtual world experimentation: An exploratory study , 2009 .

[10]  Richard E. Mayer,et al.  Multimedia learning in an interactive self-explaining environment: What works in the design of agent , 2003 .

[11]  Noah L. Schroeder,et al.  How Effective are Pedagogical Agents for Learning? A Meta-Analytic Review , 2013 .

[12]  Ioannis Hatzilygeroudis,et al.  Learning Approaches in a 3D Virtual Environment for Learning Energy Generation from Renewable Sources , 2016, FLAIRS.

[13]  David B. Searls,et al.  Ten Simple Rules for Online Learning , 2012, PLoS Comput. Biol..

[14]  James T. Miller,et al.  An Empirical Evaluation of the System Usability Scale , 2008, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[15]  Ioannis Hatzilygeroudis,et al.  Teaching Renewable Energy Sources Using 3D Virtual World Technology , 2015, 2015 IEEE 15th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies.

[16]  L. Cronbach.  Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests , 1951 .

[17]  Tze Wei Liew,et al.  The Effects of Peer-Like and Expert-Like Pedagogical Agents on Learners' Agent Perceptions, Task-Related Attitudes, and Learning Achievement , 2013, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[18]  Tassos A. Mikropoulos,et al.  Educational virtual environments: A ten-year review of empirical research (1999-2009) , 2011, Comput. Educ..

[19]  Alan Miller,et al.  Growing the use of Virtual Worlds in education : an OpenSim perspective , 2012 .

[20]  C. Guetl,et al.  Intelligent Pedagogical Agents in immersive virtual learning environments: A review , 2010, The 33rd International Convention MIPRO.

[21]  J. B. Brooke,et al.  SUS: A 'Quick and Dirty' Usability Scale , 1996 .

[22]  V. Shute.  Focus on Formative Feedback , 2008 .

[23]  Marc Conrad,et al.  Increasing student engagement through virtual interactions: How? , 2017, Virtual Reality.

[24]  Alexandra Poulovassilis,et al.  Learning as immersive experiences: Using the four-dimensional framework for designing and evaluating immersive learning experiences in a virtual world , 2010, Br. J. Educ. Technol..