What is a Pedagogical Agent?
Pedagogical Agents are characters or avatars used in eLearning to help guide the learner through the content. These guides can take the role of an instructor, expert, or peer.
Instructor
Instructors can introduce topics, explain navigation, present content, provide summaries, and facilitate assessment. They can also take on a more supportive role of virtual coach or mentor where they pose questions and encourage reflection. They provide feedback on performance during the learning, including remedial feedback to get the learner back on track.
Expert
The expert is a highly skilled character that knows the answers to all the questions. They are usually role-specific such as a doctor, engineer, or lawyer. They provide explanations, state facts, and clarify concepts.
Peer
The peer is a friendly colleague or helper that has the same knowledge as the learner. They provide advice, share tips, ask questions, and suggest problem-solving approaches. They can be more informal than the other characters making the interactions more personal.
Other uses of characters in eLearning
In addition to using guides, characters can also be part of the actual content. Characters can be put to work where they use skills or demonstrate a certain behaviour. Characters are used in scenarios where the learning is acquired through the conversations and actions taking place.
The use of first-person allows the learner to change perspective and take control of the character in a scenario or game-based learning activity.
Characters can also be used within stories in the role of the protagonist, antagonist, cast members, or even the narrator.
Why use a Pedagogical Agent
The key benefit of using a pedagogical agent or virtual coach is that it improves retention and application on the job. There is greater engagement as learners can put a face to the narration and it encourages a conversational tone of voice rather then formal instruction. The character can show emotion, is personal, and can talk directly to the learner.
These benefits align to Clark and Mayer’s Personalization Principle of using a conversational style and virtual coaches.
Choosing a Pedagogical Agent
There are several different character types available ranging from illustration, photographs, and 3D models. They can be static or animated and vary in terms of realism, affordability, and customization. These characters then have to communicate with the learner, and this can be achieved using visual or audible methods:
Visual
- Speech bubbles
- Text boxes
Audible
- Text-to-speech
- Voiceover
See the slider interaction below to view pedagogical agent examples and their related attributes.
Tips for using Virtual Coaches
- Ensure the selected characters align to the overall look and feel of the learning project.
- Base your choice of avatar on any cost and time constraints, as customised and animated characters can be expensive.
- Avoid overuse where the characters become distracting to the learner. Limit use to key sections such as the introduction, transitions, feedback, assessment, or summaries.
- When the realism of the avatar approaches photorealistic levels, some people may suffer from the uncanny valley effect where viewing the character becomes unsettling!
- Unless you are designing for children, avoid the use of animals or cartoon characters.
Review
Pros: Greater engagement, can add emotion to the learning experience, improves retention and application on the job.
Cons: Distracting if overused, can come off as cheesy, adverse uncanny valley effects.
Related reading: Game-based learning, Instructional Design
Clark & Mayer (Applying the Personalization Principle: Use Conversational Style and Virtual Coaches)
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118255971.ch9