Improving Learning in Virtual Learning Environments Using Affective Pedagogical Agent

Abstract

Emotions are part of human life, and they are present on several occasions, like decision making and in social interactions. Computational identification of emotions in texts can be useful in many applications, especially in distance learning courses. This research introduces an animated pedagogic agent, integrated to a Moodle virtual learning environment, with the objective of assisting the tutor in accompanying students, helping the students to acquire knowledge, identifying their emotions, and motivating the student to participate in activities and discussions. As a way of assessing students' emotional state, an experiment was conducted using real data from a completed course, involving students. The results obtained are promising, evidencing the importance of knowing the emotional state of the students, contributing to the learning process.

Learning Outcomes of a Hybrid Online Virtual Classroom and In-Person Traditional Classroom during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The results of the current study are similar to [32] to some extent, but are quite different from most prior studies [10,15,26,[37][38][39]. For example, Chowdhury [10] found that the virtual classroom could produce improvements in student learning and performance.…”

“…Chen and Meng [38] found that task-oriented behaviors accounted for most online learning processes and student engagement levels during virtual classroom learning processes had a statistically significant impact on their learning outcomes. This may be, in part, because of the apprehensions or anxieties of both instructors and students resulting from COVID-19, which, in turn, may have resulted in inactive or somewhat pessimistic learning behaviors and ultimately lower-than-expected performance; or, to put it slightly differently, the emotional state of the students may contribute to their learning process and performance [37]. For instance, our results are in conflict with the findings of [29,39] who found no major differences between the virtual classroom and face-to-face classroom regarding student grades.…”