Animated Pedagogical Agents: The Effect of Visual Information on a Historical Figure Application

R. Heller and M. Procter
Additional contact information
R. Heller: Athabasca University, Canada
M. Procter: Athabasca University, Canada

International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT), 2009, vol. 4, issue 1, 54-65

Abstract: The role of Animated Pedagogical Agents (APAs) depends on an understanding of the persona effect as a mechanism for increasing student engagement and motivation. We argue that historical figure applications of APAs may be helpful to identify the parameters that give rise to a persona effect. Given the importance of visual information, an experimental approach was used to examine how different image conditions would affect perception of a historical figure APA interaction. Eighty-eight participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions; no image, static image, or animated image. Contrary to expectations, the no image condition was associated with significantly higher ratings for 6 of the 12 measures, including 3 measures of social presence. These findings stand in contrast to previous research and suggest that historical figure applications may be unique in their evocation of a persona effect and valuable for understanding the nature of the persona effect.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... 018/jwltt.2009010104 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jwltt0:v:4:y:2009:i:1:p:54-65

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT) is currently edited by Mahesh S. Raisinghani

More articles in International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().