Exploring the experience of different robot personalities in enhancing university students’ learning: Comparative study on Furhat robot as a teaching assistant
Kulathunga, Dakshika Erangi (2024)
2024
Master's Programme in Human-Technology Interaction
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-05-22
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202405105690
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202405105690
Tiivistelmä
This research explores the user experience of different robot personalities in enhancing university students’ learning. To achieve this, the study utilizes the Furhat robot as the teaching assistant. By this, we aim to assess participants' engagement, attention level, perception, emotions, and experience towards robot personalities in the context of learning. While researchers have extensively explored the use of robots in the role of teaching assistants in education, there is a noticeable gap in exploring the impact of different robot personalities in enhancing university students’ learning experiences. We conducted two study phases at Tampere University premises in order to examine the experience and impact of Furhat personalities on student engagement and learning outcomes.
In the pre-study, twelve participants who were students at Tampere University interacted with three different existing Furhat personalities as teaching assistants. The goal of this study phase was to assess the student engagement, attention levels, and to identify perceptions and emotions towards the robot. As data collection methods, questionnaires and canvas tasks were administered to the students and Affinity diagrams were utilized to analyze the findings. The results revealed that issues such as accuracy of the information, speech, communication style, behavior, and appearance led most students to perceive Furhat personalities as companions rather than effective teaching assistants.
For the main study, the researcher introduced a newly designed personality named Astro Luna as an astrology teaching assistant to engage and enhance effective learning experiences for students. Astro Luna is designed as a teaching assistant to provide educational content about astrology. It mainly facilitates learning and engagement in an academic context. Additionally, the appearance, speech patterns and interactions fulfil its perceived function by emphasizing clarity, professionalism and expertise in astrology. Therefore, participants perceived Astro Luna as a positive, engaging personality indicating its potential as a teaching assistant in educational settings. The new personality was designed by utilizing the Big Five personality traits. Four participants studying at Tampere University joined this study. The goal was to assess students' experiences of the new personality in the context of learning. Surveys and interviews were conducted as data collection methods and content analysis was employed to analyze data provided by the participants.
Overall findings of this research contribute to the previous literature about the experience of the teaching assistant role. It identified limitations, which were related to accent detection, speech speed, and physical features of robots. Moreover, as a contribution, six design implications were derived from the findings of this research and were suggested for future research and development.
In the pre-study, twelve participants who were students at Tampere University interacted with three different existing Furhat personalities as teaching assistants. The goal of this study phase was to assess the student engagement, attention levels, and to identify perceptions and emotions towards the robot. As data collection methods, questionnaires and canvas tasks were administered to the students and Affinity diagrams were utilized to analyze the findings. The results revealed that issues such as accuracy of the information, speech, communication style, behavior, and appearance led most students to perceive Furhat personalities as companions rather than effective teaching assistants.
For the main study, the researcher introduced a newly designed personality named Astro Luna as an astrology teaching assistant to engage and enhance effective learning experiences for students. Astro Luna is designed as a teaching assistant to provide educational content about astrology. It mainly facilitates learning and engagement in an academic context. Additionally, the appearance, speech patterns and interactions fulfil its perceived function by emphasizing clarity, professionalism and expertise in astrology. Therefore, participants perceived Astro Luna as a positive, engaging personality indicating its potential as a teaching assistant in educational settings. The new personality was designed by utilizing the Big Five personality traits. Four participants studying at Tampere University joined this study. The goal was to assess students' experiences of the new personality in the context of learning. Surveys and interviews were conducted as data collection methods and content analysis was employed to analyze data provided by the participants.
Overall findings of this research contribute to the previous literature about the experience of the teaching assistant role. It identified limitations, which were related to accent detection, speech speed, and physical features of robots. Moreover, as a contribution, six design implications were derived from the findings of this research and were suggested for future research and development.