Effects of an adaptive robot encouraging teamwork on students' learning

Parastoo Baghaei Ravari, Ken Jen Lee, Edith Law, Dana Kulic

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference PaperResearchpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this work, we designed a teachable robot that encourages a pair of students to discuss their thoughts and teaching decisions during the tutoring session. The robot adapts to the students' talking activity and adjusts the frequency and type of encouragement. We hypothesize that the robot's encouragement of group discussion can enhance the social engagement of group members, leading to improved learning and enjoyment. We ran a user study (n = 68), where a pair of participants (dyad) worked together to teach a humanoid robot about rocks and minerals. In the adaptive condition, the robot uses reinforcement learning to maximise interaction between the dyad members. Results show that the adaptive robot was successful in creating more dialogue between dyad members and in increasing task engagement, but did not affect learning or enjoyment. Over time, the adaptive robot was also able to encourage both members to contribute more equally to the conversation.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication30th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN 2021
EditorsSilvia Rossi, Harold Soh
Place of PublicationPiscataway NJ USA
PublisherIEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Pages250-257
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781665404921
ISBN (Print)9781665446372
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
EventIEEE/RSJ International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication 2021 - Online, Vancouver, Canada
Duration: 8 Aug 202112 Aug 2021
Conference number: 30th
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/9515344/proceeding (Proceedings)
https://ro-man2021.org/ (Website)

Publication series

Name2021 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN 2021
PublisherIEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ISSN (Print)1944-9445
ISSN (Electronic)1944-9437

Conference

ConferenceIEEE/RSJ International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication 2021
Abbreviated titleRO-MAN 2021
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityVancouver
Period8/08/2112/08/21
Internet address

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