Design and Evaluation of Embodied Conversational Agents for Educational and Advisory Software

Abstract

Embodied conversational agents may take on a diversity o f roles in learning and advisory scenarios including virtual teachers, advisors, learning companions, and autonomous actors in educational role play. They promote learner motivation, engagement, and self-confidence, and may help prevent and overcome negative affective states o f learners, such as frustration and fear offailure. The chapter will provide guidelines and approved methods fo r the development o f animated pedagogical agents including the extraction o f multimodal tutorial strategies from human-human teaching dialogues as well as the simulation and evaluation o f such strategies in computer-mediated learning environments.

DynaLearn — An Intelligent Learning Environment for Learning Conceptual Knowledge

“…Second, learners are given control over their learning activities, providing them with personal autonomy, while the software coaches them individually based on their current progress and learning goals. Third, the ILE is made extra engaging and motivating by using personified agent technology (André 2008) in the interaction with learners.…”