Understanding individual differences in users’ preferences and responses to an Intelligent Virtual Advisor for reducing study stress

H. Ranjbartabar*, D. Richards

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference proceeding contributionpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A good teacher knows each student as an individual and encourages them accordingly. An Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA) designed to provide tailored educational and emotional support also needs to reason and respond according to individual student differences. To collect data to develop models of individual differences in students’ preferences and responses to IVAs based on gender, personality and emotional state, we conducted a study with 376 participants using two different virtual advisors (one empathic, one neutral) to “Reduce Study Stress”. The experiment consisted of a control group who received tips via pdf documents and two experimental groups designed with one within-subjects factor (virtual advisors with empathic or neutral dialogue) and one between-subjects factor (different order of receiving empathic and neutral advisors). We also collected students perception of the advisors’ helpfulness and the students’ study stress levels at three time points. Groups using the IVAs reported significantly lower levels of study stress at the end of the study. Some differences were found in preferences for and responses to IVA behaviour based on participants’ gender, personality and levels of depression, anxiety and stress.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvances in Information Systems Development
Subtitle of host publicationDesigning Digitalization
EditorsBo Andersson, Björn Johansson, Chris Barry, Michael Lang, Henry Linger, Christoph Schneider
Place of PublicationSwitzerland
PublisherSpringer, Springer Nature
Pages227-245
Number of pages19
Volume34
ISBN (Electronic)9783030229931
ISBN (Print)9783030229924
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2019
Event27th International Conference on Information Systems Development, ISD 2018 - Lund, Sweden
Duration: 22 Aug 201824 Aug 2018

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation
PublisherSpringer
Volume34
ISSN (Print)2195-4968
ISSN (Electronic)2195-4976

Conference

Conference27th International Conference on Information Systems Development, ISD 2018
Country/TerritorySweden
CityLund
Period22/08/1824/08/18

Keywords

  • DASS21
  • Gender
  • Intelligent virtual agents
  • Personality
  • User/student modelling

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