Building a Social Conversational Pedagogical Agent [chapter]

Agneta Gulz, Magnus Haake, Annika Silvervarg, Björn Sjödén, George Veletsianos
Conversational Agents and Natural Language Interaction  
This chapter discusses design challenges encountered when developing a conversational pedagogical agent. By tracing the historical roots of pedagogical agents in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), we discern central developments in creating an agent that is both knowledgeable and fosters a social relationship with the learner. Main challenges faced when attempting to develop a pedagogical agent of this kind relate to: i) learners' expectations on the agent's knowledge and social profile, ii)
more » ... aling with learners' engagement in off-task conversation and iii) managing potential abuse of the agent. We discuss these challenges and possible ways to address them, with reference to an ongoing Research & Development project, and with a focus on the design of a pedagogical agent's visual embodiment and its conversational capabilities.
doi:10.4018/978-1-60960-617-6.ch006 fatcat:eyz2g6fhe5ffpfhyemxxfv6ghy