Desirable Characteristics of Learning Companions

Authors

Yanghee Kim, Utah State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education

Volume

17

Issue

4

Publisher

IOS Press

Publication Date

2007

First Page

371

Last Page

388

Abstract

This study investigated the desirable characteristics of anthropomorphized learning-companion agents for college students. First, interviews with six undergraduates explored their concepts of desirable learning companions. The interviews yielded agent competency, agent personality, and interaction control. Next, a controlled experiment examined whether learner competency (strong vs. weak) would relate directly to agent competency (high vs. low) and to interaction control (agent-control vs. learner-control). The dependent measures included learners' perceptions of agent functionality, their self-efficacy beliefs in the task, and their learning. The results indicated that academically strong students perceived the high-competent agent higher than the lowcompetent agent and showed higher self-efficacy beliefs in the task and recalled more after working with the high-competent agent. Academically weak students, by contrast, showed higher self-efficacy and recalled more after working with the low-competent agent. Also, academically strong students valued agent-control highly, but academically weak students valued learner-control. The strong students showed higher self-efficacy in agentcontrol but lower self-efficacy in learner-control than did the weak students. In general, the results indicated that the similarities of characteristics between an agent and a learner have positive impacts on learners' cognitive and affective attainments.

Comments

Originally published by IOS Press. Publisher's PDF available through remote link.

Recommended Citation

Kim, Y. (2007). Desirable characteristics of learning companions. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 17(4), 371-388.