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Social robots and virtual agents as lecturers for video instruction

Li, Jamy; Kizilcec, René; Bailenson, Jeremy; Ju, Wendy

Authors

René Kizilcec

Jeremy Bailenson

Wendy Ju



Abstract

One emerging convention in video lectures is to show presentation slides with an inset video of the instructor’s head. Substituting a robot or a digital agent for the video of the instructor could radically decrease production time and cost; thus, the influence of a digital agent or robot on the learner should be evaluated. Agent-based alternatives for a talking head were assessed with an experiment comparing human and agent lecturers in a video from a popular online course. Participants who saw the inset video of the actual lecturer replaced by an animated human lecturer recalled less information than those who saw the recording of the human lecturer. However, when the actual lecturer was replaced with a social robot, knowledge recall was higher with an animated robot than a recording of a real robot. This effect on knowledge recall was moderated by gender. Attitudes were more positive toward human lecturers than toward robots. An initial proof-of-concept demonstrates that although a human lecturer is preferable, robotic and virtual agents may be viable alternatives if designed properly.

Citation

Li, J., Kizilcec, R., Bailenson, J., & Ju, W. (2016). Social robots and virtual agents as lecturers for video instruction. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 1222-1230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.04.005

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 6, 2015
Online Publication Date May 23, 2015
Publication Date 2016-02
Deposit Date May 7, 2024
Print ISSN 0747-5632
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 55
Pages 1222-1230
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.04.005
Keywords Embodied pedagogical agent, Pedagogical social robot, Human–robot interaction, Virtual agent, Talking head, Video instruction