Integrating emotional agent into virtual learning environment is a flourishing research topic to assist the pedagogical applications. However, most of existing emotional agents still lack of a straightforward and understandable computational strategy for both educational experts and developers. In this paper, we integrate an emotional agent into a pedagogical project which uses OCC-based rules ...

Building pedagogical applications in virtual worlds is a multi-disciplinary endeavor that involves learning theories, application development framework, and mediated communication theories. This paper presents a project that integrates game-based learning, multi-agent system architecture (MAS), and the theory of Transformed Social Interaction (TSI), The project implements a group of engaging, a...

In this paper we propose the role of pedagogical agents as social models. We first framed our arguments in social cognitive perspectives and supported them with findings from several experimental studies we have conducted. In the studies, we found that learners perceived their agents socially and that the agents’ social presence influenced the learner’s cognitive and affective characteristics. ...

The paper presents a theoretical framework addressing three aspects of embodied pedagogical agents: visual static appearance, pedagogical role, and communicative style. The framework is then applied to a user study where 90 school children (aged 12-15) in a dummy multimedia program were presented with either an instructor or a learning companion condition. They were then to choose between eight...

This chapter discusses design challenges encountered when developing a conversational pedagogical agent. By tracing the historical roots of pedagogical agents in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), we discern central developments in creating an agent that is both knowledgeable and fosters a social relationship with the learner. Main challenges faced when attempting to develop a pedagogical agen...

The complexity of evaluating e-learning has become an issue that is being addressed by educational developers. A possible solution to part of the problem lies in the use of software agents to extract data from the e-learning software and to organise that data in intelligent ways. A project group (PEDANT) is working on the design and development of pedagogical agents to monitor and evaluate a ra...