ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed the importance of efficient and accommodating online educational experiences. In this contribution, we present a novel system for the facilitation of small group online discussions using an avatar during video conferencing. The avatar was programmed with group facilitation best practices, whereas the content for the activities was prepared by the classes' teachers. Groups of tenth grade students interacted with the system, where we compared activities facilitated by the avatar with activities without facilitation. Our results show that students reported the activity with the avatar to be significantly more efficient, more understandable and inducing more participation compared to activities without avatar facilitation. Students also spoke significantly more with avatar facilitation. This system shows promise in future online educational activities as a facilitator of discussions with K-12 students. © 2022 ACM.
ABSTRACT
This paper describes our remote collaboration project related to the design and implementation of virtual kawaii robots by Japanese and American university students, and affective evaluation of the robots. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to change our planned 7-week collaboration from in-person to virtual with a resultant change in the target product of our collaboration from real robots to virtual robots. Based on our new plan for 2021, students designed robots in virtual spaces aiming that each robot elicited a different Electroencephalogram (EEG) and/or Heart Rate (HR) reaction from humans. Based on the persona and scenario for the companion robot authored by each student team, each student designed four robots with the goal that one robot would be most kawaii, a Japanese adjective representing cute and adorable, and others would be less kawaii due to variations in shapes and colors. The affective evaluation of robots was performed both by biological signals (EEG and HR) and by kawaii rating. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Information and communication technologies in the context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 are used in all industries. In the context of COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to distance learning, computer hardware and software systems are an effective tool for the successful implementation of the training process in the universities. Virtual laboratories, simulators, test computer systems are the components of the virtual educational environment of the universities. Today these tools contain a specific multimedia element - a virtual robot assistant. Student's interaction with a virtual assistant should be comfortable and provide the successful educational process. The authors examined several aspects of effective student's interaction with the multimedia components of the interface of the computerized learning environment. The results of the conducted experiment can be used by developers of computer virtual laboratories, simulators, experimental research stands, test computer systems, a component of which is a virtual robot assistant, to optimize the processes of educational activities distance learning included. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Since the last months of 2019 with the arrival of COVID-19, jobs changed due to confinement;for this reason remote work increased;In a survey carried out among workers from the Universidad de Ciencias y Humanidades, the desire to improve the organization of their work schedule is mentioned, for this reason it was decided to create a virtual assistant, taking into account that virtual assistants and smart devices are increasingly more involved in daily life, devices that can be controlled with the voice, to perform specific activities, in some field of application, the virtual assistant created will help in the organization and recall of events, during remote work, based on these requirements, was born YANA, a virtual assistant developed in Python, which through voice instructions, guides you to organize your work schedule in addition to reminding you of upcoming events, thus managing to provide support in the organization of the agenda, leaving aside the concern of forgetting something Important event;Together with the development of YANA, it was possible to create a user interface, which allows us to control YANA and interact with it, since it is also capable of answering various questions that are asked, as well as the ability to follow a conversation;In the evaluation system developed to evaluate YANA's interaction with users, an average of 7 out of 10 was obtained from a series of questions posed to users. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed the importance of efficient and accommodating online educational experiences. In this contribution, we present work-in-progress on the development of a novel system for facilitation of small group online discussions using an avatar during video conferencing. Four groups of eighth and ninth grades' students interacted with the system, with and without avatar guidance. Our pilot study results show that students reported the avatar-guided learning to be more efficient, easier to follow, and inducing more engagement and active participation. Students also showed better understanding of the learned subject with the avatar guidance, as shown by the post-session questionnaires. This system shows promise in future online educational activities as a facilitator of discussions with K-12 students. © 2021 Virtual Simulation Innovation Workshop, SIW 2021. All rights reserved.