The Use of UTAUT and Post Acceptance Models to Investigate the Attitude towards a Telepresence Robot in an Educational Setting

Jeonghye Han,Daniela Conti

doi:10.3390/robotics9020034

Abstract

(1) Background: in the last decade, various investigations into the field of robotics have created several opportunities for further innovation to be possible in student education. However, despite scientific evidence, there is still strong scepticism surrounding the use of robots in some social fields, such as personal care and education. (2) Methods: in this research, we present a new tool named the HANCON model, which was developed merging and extending the constructs of two solid and proven models—the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model used to examine the factors that may influence the decision to use a telepresence robot as an instrument in educational practice, and the Post Acceptance Model used to evaluate acceptability after the actual use of a telepresence robot. The new tool is implemented and used to study the acceptance of a double telepresence robot by 112 pre-service teachers in an educational setting. (3) Results: the analysis of the experimental results predicts and demonstrate a positive attitude towards the use of telepresence robot in a school setting and confirm the applicability of the model in an educational context. (4) Conclusions: the constructs of the HANCON model could predict and explain the acceptance of social telepresence robots in social contexts.

Highlights

A robot is defined by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) as “a programmable device that can move and perform tasks in its environment” [1]
perceived usefulness (PU) was identified as a secondary determinant of continuance intention, and loyalty incentives did not have any significant effect on continuance intention
The results showed that the use of the HANCON model with telepresence robots reported a Cronbach Alpha of = 0.509 for facilitating conditions (FC) and 0.443 for perceived adaptivity (PAD)

Summary

Introduction

A robot is defined by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) as “a programmable device that can move and perform tasks in its environment” [1]. The term “robotics” includes a variety of research sub-areas: social robotics, involving robots that engage in social interaction with humans through speech, gestures, or other means of communication; assistive robotics, which generally involves robots that assist people with physical and neurodevelopmental disabilities. Another sub-area of robotics is Socially Assistive Robotics (SAR), a fast-emerging field that has developed from the intersection of these two and involves robots that are designed to help through advanced interaction which is driven by user needs via multimodal interfaces [2]. Thanks to evidence from various studies and the use of new robotic platforms concerning applications in social

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion