Abstract
Over the last years, the successful integration of virtual reality in distance education contexts has led to the development of various frameworks related to the virtual learning approaches. 3D virtual worlds are an integral part of the landscape of education and demonstrate novel learning possibilities that can open new directions in education. An important aspect of virtual worlds relates to the intelligent, embodied pedagogical agents that are employed to enhance the interaction with students and improve their overall learning experience. The proper design and integration of embodied pedagogical agents in virtual learning environments are highly desirable. Although virtual agents constitute a vital part of virtual environments, their exact impact needs are yet to be addressed and assessed. The aim of the present study is to thoroughly examine and deeply understand the effect that embodied pedagogical agents have on the learning experience of students as well as on their performance. We examine how students perceive the role of pedagogical agents as learning companions during specific game-based activities and the effect that their assistance has on students’ learning. A concrete experimental study was conducted in AVARES, a 3D virtual world educational environment that teaches the domain of environmental engineering and energy generation. The results of the study point out that embodied pedagogical agents can improve students’ learning experience, enhance their engagement with learning activities and, most of all, improve their knowledge construction and performance.
Highlights
IntroductionTechnological advances greatly affected educational systems and have revealed novel tools and methods that are more attractive to students and have the potential to provide more efficient educational processes
During the last decade, technological advances greatly affected educational systems and have revealed novel tools and methods that are more attractive to students and have the potential to provide more efficient educational processes
Students from our university studied in the 3D virtual world and participated in a wide spectrum of gamified learning procedures under different conditions and situations in terms of feedback, guidance, and presence of embodied pedagogical agents
Summary
Technological advances greatly affected educational systems and have revealed novel tools and methods that are more attractive to students and have the potential to provide more efficient educational processes. Educational platforms that are based on virtual reality have the possibility to provide students and teachers with a wide spectrum of training procedures and have been used in many challenging fields and domains [1,2,3]. Virtual reality educational systems can be very assistive to both teachers in their teaching processes, and most of all, to students in their study, knowledge acquisition and understanding [4]. A crucial characteristic of 3D virtual reality platforms relates to the personal and social affordances that users experience. It is pointed out in many studies that an important issue of distant educational
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