Improving Bonding And Icebreaking Among Team-members Through Robot-Supported Collaborative Activities (RSCA)
Rahman, Rahat (2023)
2023
Master's Programme in Computing Sciences
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-05-29
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202304284859
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202304284859
Tiivistelmä
Collaborative activities are now more popular and befitting than ever, in both academic and industrial realm. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant changes to the academic setting, leading us toward a system where we had to give more emphases on virtual team-work, group projects, online assignments and workshops and so on. Now, as we are gradually getting back to the normal on-site setting, group learning, participating in tasks, team-activities are becoming a bit challenging to readapt. As teamwork can help to foster sense of community, promote student engagement and enhance learning outcomes, it can be very crucial for readjusting in today’s changing academic environment. Fruitful teamwork can be sup-ported by having constructive icebreaking and improving bonding among the team members in the initial phases of team building. Icebreaking and bonding among team members are essential for building cooperation, trust and communication in a team.
Icebreaking and team bonding improving activities can take many forms, including team-building workshops, exercises, group events, fun collaborative games and activities, brain teasers and so on. Moreover, use of modern technologies like AR, VR, XR, robotics etc. can make these activities more interesting. The key to have a significant positive impact on ice-breaking and team bonding enhancing activities is to design activities that are engaging, relevant, and meaningful to the team. Various studies already proved the positive influence of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) on icebreaking and collaborative activities in teams. Different approaches and robots have been used till date for this purpose, but the scope of zoomorphic robots is yet to be explored and therefore, we would like to address this research gap in this thesis. In this research, the socially assistive robotics (SAR) approach in HRI have been followed to create effective interaction. The objective of this study is to investigate the potentiality of robot-supported collaborative activities (RSCA), specifically zoomorphic robot supported collaborative activities.
This thesis explores the acceptability, feasibility and usefulness of using RSCA as means to improve team bonding and icebreaking among team members. The study employs a mixed-method approach, including both quantitative and qualitative data analysis for evaluating the impact of RSCA on team bonding and icebreaking. Here, the user studies involve the target users in a more human-centered approach. The research also aims to provide befitting and solid design implications for robot supported collaborative activities focusing on the type of robot and the type of collaborative activity best suited for this purpose.
As pre-study, we conducted a fun robot agility game contest using the zoomorphic robot Spot. There were ten teams (n=21) and our aim was to find out the acceptability, impact of the robot and the collaborative activity in team’s bonding and icebreaking. The pre-study phase also included semi-structured interview with seven participants. The idea of using zoomorphic robot for icebreaking and team bonding enhancement was appreciated and accepted but most of the participants suggested collaborative activities rather than competitive activities. Based on their suggestions, ideas, expectations and observation data, we then came up with a robot-supported collaborative activity (RSCA) where participants were engaged in a group activities session including icebreaking and cultural collaborative activity. Later on, we evaluated the RSCA with all the participants (n=6) through online semi-structured interview and online questionnaire. The analysis of the evaluation study showed great potential of RSCA and it was feasible, interesting and useful for constructive ice-breaking and team bonding improvement. Design implications such as, zoomorphic and humanoid robots are preferred for RSCA, collaborative activities are considered better than competitive activities for team bonding enhancement and so on, were also formulated based on the gathered data and related works.
Icebreaking and team bonding improving activities can take many forms, including team-building workshops, exercises, group events, fun collaborative games and activities, brain teasers and so on. Moreover, use of modern technologies like AR, VR, XR, robotics etc. can make these activities more interesting. The key to have a significant positive impact on ice-breaking and team bonding enhancing activities is to design activities that are engaging, relevant, and meaningful to the team. Various studies already proved the positive influence of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) on icebreaking and collaborative activities in teams. Different approaches and robots have been used till date for this purpose, but the scope of zoomorphic robots is yet to be explored and therefore, we would like to address this research gap in this thesis. In this research, the socially assistive robotics (SAR) approach in HRI have been followed to create effective interaction. The objective of this study is to investigate the potentiality of robot-supported collaborative activities (RSCA), specifically zoomorphic robot supported collaborative activities.
This thesis explores the acceptability, feasibility and usefulness of using RSCA as means to improve team bonding and icebreaking among team members. The study employs a mixed-method approach, including both quantitative and qualitative data analysis for evaluating the impact of RSCA on team bonding and icebreaking. Here, the user studies involve the target users in a more human-centered approach. The research also aims to provide befitting and solid design implications for robot supported collaborative activities focusing on the type of robot and the type of collaborative activity best suited for this purpose.
As pre-study, we conducted a fun robot agility game contest using the zoomorphic robot Spot. There were ten teams (n=21) and our aim was to find out the acceptability, impact of the robot and the collaborative activity in team’s bonding and icebreaking. The pre-study phase also included semi-structured interview with seven participants. The idea of using zoomorphic robot for icebreaking and team bonding enhancement was appreciated and accepted but most of the participants suggested collaborative activities rather than competitive activities. Based on their suggestions, ideas, expectations and observation data, we then came up with a robot-supported collaborative activity (RSCA) where participants were engaged in a group activities session including icebreaking and cultural collaborative activity. Later on, we evaluated the RSCA with all the participants (n=6) through online semi-structured interview and online questionnaire. The analysis of the evaluation study showed great potential of RSCA and it was feasible, interesting and useful for constructive ice-breaking and team bonding improvement. Design implications such as, zoomorphic and humanoid robots are preferred for RSCA, collaborative activities are considered better than competitive activities for team bonding enhancement and so on, were also formulated based on the gathered data and related works.