Work-in-Progress - Virtual Agents in teaching: a study of human aspects

Meena Jha, Deborah Richards, Meredith Porte, Amara Atif

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

2 Citations (Scopus)
87 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Students require human intelligence and social interaction in the form of academic assistance at different times of their study period. Their desire to get and find academic assistance varies and is dependent on many factors such as attendance mode, personal situation, semester timetables, and assessment due dates. Providing students with access to this expertise when it is needed and to large numbers of students is problematic. Virtual Agents (VAs) seek to provide a technology-enabled social element to encourage and provide timely support to aid students' learning. We have implemented 4 unit-specific VIRtual Teaching Assistants (VIRTAs) across 2 universities to provide support to answer student's questions about various aspects of the unit. In this work-in-progress paper, we present the usage patterns of students to show how many questions were asked by students and at what point of time in the semester the questions were asked addressing the desire to find assistance when required from VIRTA.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of 6th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network, iLRN 2020
EditorsDaphne Economou, Alexander Klippel, Heather Dodds, Anasol Peña-Rios, Mark J. W. Lee, Dennis Beck, Johanna Pirker, Andreas Dengel, Tiago M. Peres, Jonathon Richter
Place of PublicationOnline
PublisherImmersive Learning Research Network (iLRN)
Pages259-262
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781734899504
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Event6th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network, iLRN 2020 - Virtual, Online, United States
Duration: 21 Jun 202025 Jun 2020

Publication series

NameProceedings of 6th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network, iLRN 2020

Conference

Conference6th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network, iLRN 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, Online
Period21/06/2025/06/20

Bibliographical note

Copyright ©2020 by the Immersive Learning Research Network. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

  • educational institutions.
  • learning components
  • unit helper guide
  • virtual agent

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