Virtual humans to manage epistemic emotions in educational virtual worlds

We seek to provide tailored support in an educational virtual world (EVW) for high school students to gain scientific knowledge and research inquiry skills. This paper focuses on using virtual humans to capture students’ emotional states and provide motivational support. We have conducted two classroom studies involving a total of 49 students in Years 8-9, 19 at a girls-only comprehensive school and another 30 at a co-educational academically selective school. While using the EVW, students encountered five virtual humans who elicited students’ emotions by asking “How are you?” We sought to measure students’ willingness to disclose their emotions to the virtual human.