@inproceedings{fbbe18584c78435593340853efbd3ba0,
title = "The effect of virtual agent gender and embodiment on the experiences and performance of students in virtual field trips",
abstract = "In this paper, we explore how the embodiment and gender of a virtual instructor can affect social presence, spatial presence, perceived learning effectiveness, and performance of students in virtual field trips. A pilot study with 22 students was conducted in the spring of 2020 in a geoscience course at The Pennsylvania State University. Our results show that both gender and embodiment of a virtual instructor can affect the social and learning experiences of students. A female virtual instructor elicited higher levels of social presence, spatial presence, and perceived learning effectiveness compared to a male virtual instructor; and an embodied virtual instructor elicited a higher feeling of spatial presence compared to a disembodied virtual instructor.",
keywords = "Embodied conversational agents, Embodiment, Gender, Learning effectiveness, Social presence, Spatial presence",
author = "Pejman Sajjadi and Jiayan Zhao and Wallgrun, {Jan O.} and Tanya Furman and {La Femina}, {Peter C.} and Alex Fatemi and Zidik, {Zachary E.} and Alexander Klippel",
year = "2020",
month = dec,
day = "8",
doi = "10.1109/TALE48869.2020.9368457",
language = "English",
series = "Proceedings of 2020 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2020",
publisher = "IEEE",
pages = "221--228",
editor = "Hiroyuki Mitsuhara and Yoshiko Goda and Yutato Ohashi and Rodrigo, {Ma. Mercedes T.} and Jun Shen and Neelakantam Venkatarayalu and Gary Wong and Masanori Yamada and {Chi-Un Lei}, Leon",
booktitle = "Proceedings of 2020 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2020",
address = "United States",
note = "2020 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2020 ; Conference date: 08-12-2020 Through 11-12-2020",
}