Scaling-Up Social Learning in Small Groups with Robot Supported Collaborative Learning (RSCL): Effects of Learners’ Prior Experience in the Case Study of Planning Poker with the Robot NAO

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The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to online learning in higher education, making the need to rethink pedagogical approaches to on-campus education stronger than ever before. While online learning offers a wide range of benefits for both teachers and students, social, face-to-face interaction provides a strong rationale for in-person education. This paper proposes a novel approach to enhancing in-person social learning experiences through robot-supported collaborative learning facilitated by a social robot NAO in the case study “Planning poker with NAO”, which is a collaborative game-based activity facilitated by the robot. The case study was designed to provide a scalable social learning experience in small groups of students. The evaluation results from a study with 46 university students who played Planning poker with NAO explore different quality aspects of the learning experience. The results indicate that students valued both the social learning experience and the robotic facilitator. The analysis revealed some significant differences among students with and without prior experience in interacting with NAO, suggesting directions for future research related to novelty and familiarisation effects as well as to scaling up of social learning in small groups by applying social robots.