1.1 Conversational Pedagogical Agents
In this chapter a “pedagogical agent” refers to a computer-generated character employed in an educational setting in order to fulfill pedagogical purposes. Such agents (or characters) can serve numerous pedagogical roles (Chou, Chan, & Lin, 2003; Baylor & Kim, 2005; Haake & Gulz, 2009). For instance, they have been presented and studied as instructors, coaches, tutors, and learning companions.
The concept of an “agent” denotes an entity with some degree of “intelligence” and capacity for autonomous action. Agents, or intelligent agents as used within the computer science discipline, refer to a computer programs that can “act” on their own (i.e. autonomously). When referring to “pedagogical agents” in today’s educational contexts, it is also assumed that the agent has a corresponding visual representation. Conversational pedagogical agents refer to a subgroup of pedagogical agents, namely those that can engage in a conversation with a learner, through dialogue, and, often through elaborate body language movements including gestures, facial expressions, etc.
In this chapter, we focus on conversation via natural language, and limit our treatment to text-based interaction (typed conversation via the keyboard). Thus, we do not discuss the challenges and potentials surrounding speech recognition and production. We also exclude complex non-verbal interaction (often explored in Embodied Conversational Agents research (e.g., Cassell, Sullivan, Prevost, & Churchill, 2000; Ruttkay & Pelachaud, 2004), where the agent’s body is used for demonstrating, showing, pointing, and for giving feedback via gestural and emotional expressions. We discuss animated pedagogical agents where the visual animations are less complex, mainly aimed at making the agent appear more life-like and appealing.