Abstract
Due to its versatility, virtual technology is being widely employed in different domains, from industry to amusement. The possibility to adopt this technology in early product/service design is going to bring positive effects such as the reduction of costs associated with the production of physical prototypes and the generation of a more effective knowledge of users’ feedback. This study proposes a preliminary methodology to evaluate users’ engagement in interacting with a virtual environment that consists of the integration between a self-report method (the user engagement scale questionnaire) and a method based on facial expression recognition. Results reported in this paper show that the two methodologies generate different types of knowledge which can be used to fit users’ needs and expectations. Even if focused on a specific case study, i.e., the evaluation of the engagement in a virtual learning environment, this paper aims to propose a methodology that can be applied to all kinds of virtual products.
Highlights
E-learning systems were introduced to facilitate and enhance the learning process [1,2,3]; a problem associated with their use is that the loss of face-to-face interaction makes it impossible to assess students’ attention and response
The main contribution of this paper is to propose a preliminary methodology for the evaluation of the engagement felt by users interacting with a virtual learning environment; traditional self-report questionnaires and an automatic facial expression recognition (FER) system were used, and results coming from the two methods were compared and embedded to offer a more complete assessment of engagement
Data were analyzed to make a comparison between the level of engagement felt by the users while interacting with the EVA virtual learning environment emerging from the questionnaire method and from the automatic classification of emotions in classes of emotional activation
Summary
E-learning systems were introduced to facilitate and enhance the learning process [1,2,3]; a problem associated with their use is that the loss of face-to-face interaction makes it impossible to assess students’ attention and response. This way, it is not possible to adapt courses to students’ needs. Technologies enabling the monitoring and recognition of users’ emotions and sentiments can address this problem [4,5] In this sense, the evaluation of students’ engagement is the starting point to develop effective virtual learning environments. Notwithstanding the interest in developing methods to measure students’ engagement, there are not many studies concerning the measure of engagement in e-learning environments; in this
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