Do pedagogical agents make a difference to student motivation and learning?

Heidig, Steffi; Clarebout, Geraldine

doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2010.07.004

Cited by 249 publications

(181 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Schroeder et al (2013) reported a small, but positive and significant effect of using APAs on learning. In contrast, Heidig and Clarebout (2011) found that ''existing studies on pedagogical agents … draw a discouraging picture'' (p. 30) and concluded that the issue of their effectiveness is still largely an open question in which ''most prominently the design of the pedagogical agent'' (p. 52) has to be taken into account. The different conclusions drawn in these meta-analyses on the educational benefits of APAs derive to some degree from the complexities of designing the agent's multi-faceted features.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Animated pedagogical agents effects on enhancing student motivation and learning in a science inquiry learning environment

Meij

Harmsen

2015

Education Tech Research Dev

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This study focuses on the design and testing of a motivational animated pedagogical agent (APA) in an inquiry learning environment on kinematics. The aim of including the APA was to enhance students' perceptions of task relevance and selfefficacy. Given the under-representation of girls in science classrooms, special attention was given to designing an APA that would appeal to the female students. A review of the literature suggested that the best design solution would be an agent who was female, young, attractive, and ''cool''. An experiment compared three conditions: agent (image and voice), voice (no image), and control (no image and no voice). The research question was whether students' motivation and knowledge changed over time as they worked in the inquiry learning environment, and whether condition and gender affected such changes. Participants were 61 third-year students (mean age 14.7 years) from a secondary school. Gender was distributed evenly within and across conditions. A significant main effect of time on self-efficacy was found, with self-efficacy beliefs increasing significantly for both boys and girls. In addition, there was a significant interaction between time, condition, and gender for self-efficacy. About halfway during training, girls' self-efficacy beliefs significantly increased in both experimental conditions and decreased in the control condition. For boys the opposite pattern was found. Girls also gave higher appraisals for the agent. Students in all three conditions realized significant knowledge gains, which did not differ by gender. The discussion critically considers the need for, and design of motivational scaffolding in inquiry learning environments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Animated pedagogical agents effects on enhancing student motivation and learning in a science inquiry learning environment

Meij

Harmsen

2015

Education Tech Research Dev

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“…The authors found that all conditions led to higher scores at posttest, compared to pretest, and concluded that their findings supported a persona effect; that is, the visual presence of the animated agent led to increased student motivation and learning outcomes. This study has been criticized for not including a control group without the visual presence of the agent (Dehn & van Mulken, 2000;Heidig & Clarebot, 2011). In fact, few experimental studies have compared an APA condition to one using identical instruction without the visual presence of an agent.…”

Section: Apas In Multimediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, few experimental studies have compared an APA condition to one using identical instruction without the visual presence of an agent. Heidig and Clarebot (2011) conducted a review of literature on APAs and found 15 experimental investigations which included an appropriate control condition. Nine of the 15 studies found no significant difference in learning between an APA condition and control.…”

Section: Apas In Multimediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…APAs are used in computer-based learning environments to provide learners with pedagogical assistance using one or more instructional methods, such as directing attention to relevant information, providing feedback messages, or delivering direct instruction (Heidig & Clarebot, 2011;Dehn & van Mulken, 2000;Moreno, 2005). Such instructional methods are intended to keep students focused on essential information and to provide context-specific learning strategies (Clark & Choi, 2005).…”

Section: Apas In Multimediamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigating the impact of pedagogical agent gender matching and learner choice on learning outcomes and perceptions

Özoğul

Johnson

Atkinson

et al. 2013

Computers & Education

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The similarity attraction hypothesis posits that humans are drawn toward others who behave and appear similar to themselves. Two experiments examined this hypothesis with middle school students learning electrical circuit analysis in a computer -based environment with an Animated Pedagogical Agent (APA). Experiment 1 was designed to determine whether matching the gender of the APA to the student has a positive impact on learning outcomes or student perceptions. One hundred ninety-seven middle-school students learned with the computer-based environment using an APA that matched their gender or one which was opposite in gender. Female students reported higher program ratings when the APA matched their gender.Male students, on the other hand, reported higher program ratings than females when the APA did not match their gender. Experiment 2 systematically tested the impact of providing learners the choice among four APAs on learning outcomes and student perceptions. Three hundred thirty-four middle-school students received either a pre-assigned random APA or were free to choose from four APA options: young male agent, older male agent, young female agent, or older female agent. Learners had higher far transfer scores when provided a choice of animated agent, but student perceptions were not impacted by having the ability to make this choice. We suggest that offering students learner control positively impacts student motivation and learning by increasing student perceptions autonomy, responsibility for the success of the instructional materials, and global satisfaction with the design of materials.

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“…The impressively low percentage of learners subscribed to MOOCs, [7], that complete their courses (an average of 12% reported in 2015) is an aspect of the same problem, the MOOCs being typical examples of purely e-learning education. To address this weakness, modern e- learning platforms incorporate learning style recognition in adaptive learning platforms that can personalize both the learning content and the media through which this content is offered, [8], [9], narration, Animated Pedagogical Agents (APA), [10], [11], affective computing, [12], [13], gamification, [14], 3D or Virtual Reality environments, [15], and other such state-of-the-art technologies.…”

Section: E-learning Technologies In the Blended Learning And The Flipmentioning

confidence: 99%

E-learning and blended learning in textile engineering education: a closed feedback loop approach

Charitopoulos

Vassiliadis

Rangoussi

et al. 2017

IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng.

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Abstract. E-learning has gained a significant role in typical education and in professional training, thanks to the flexibility it offers to the time and location parameters of the education event framework. Purely e-learning scenarios are mostly limited either to Open University-type higher education institutions or to graduate level or professional degrees; blended learning scenarios are progressively becoming popular thanks to their balanced approach. The aim of the present work is to propose approaches that exploit the e-learning and the blended-learning scenarios for Textile Engineering education programmes, especially for multi-institutional ones. The "E-Team" European MSc degree programme organized by AUTEX is used as a case study. The proposed solution is based on (i) a free and open-source e-learning platform (moodle) and (ii) blended learning educational scenarios. Educational challenges addressed include student engagement, student error / failure handling, as well as collaborative learning promotion and support.

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Do pedagogical agents make a difference to student motivation and learning?

Cited by 249 publications

References 47 publications

Animated pedagogical agents effects on enhancing student motivation and learning in a science inquiry learning environment

Animated pedagogical agents effects on enhancing student motivation and learning in a science inquiry learning environment

Investigating the impact of pedagogical agent gender matching and learner choice on learning outcomes and perceptions

E-learning and blended learning in textile engineering education: a closed feedback loop approach

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