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International students often have difficulties in getting connected with other students (from their host country), or in fully understanding the lectures due to barriers such as interacting in a foreign language or adjusting to a new campus. eLearning Companions (eLCs) act as virtual friends, accompany students with dialog-based support for learning and provide individual guidance. We contribute to the lack of prescriptive design knowledge for that specific use case by deriving 16 design principles for eLCs and transferring them into an expository instantiation along the Design Science Research paradigm. We build upon 14 identified literature requirements and 15 condensed user requirements resulting from an empirical study with 76 Chinese-speaking exchange students at a German university. Our objective is to extend the knowledge base and support scientists and practitioners in eLC design for non-native students to initiate further research and discussion.

Engagement platforms (EPs) are an essential technology to enable the sharing and exchanging of services and resources. As an increasing number of industries has been disrupted by EPs, both scholars and practitioners seek understanding on how to design and govern successful EPs. While the initial focus of platform operators was mainly on profit maximization, the interest in securing or increasing user well-being is constantly growing. Design mechanisms that positively influence the three constructs of Self-Determination Theory, autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and thus well-being, have already been identified. In this study we instantiate these mechanisms in a prototype and conduct a scenario-based online experiment with a between-group design to test four hypotheses (n=111). Our results show that autonomy as well as the intention to use increase significantly through mechanisms that foster Self-Determination.