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This project explores the creation of a virtual tutor using animated pedagogical agents to enhance student learning. Aimed at improving personalized education, the application provides interactive learning experiences for diverse student needs, including deaf and hearing-impaired individuals. The tutor monitors student performance and adapts study plans, offering instant feedback. Utilizing advanced 3D graphics and text-to-speech technology, the virtual tutor aims to supplement lecture materials effectively. Preliminary testing at Bowie State University indicates promising results, with future enhancements planned.
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Virtual Tutor Application v1.0 Ruth Agada Dr. Jie Yan Bowie State University Computer Science Department
Background • Animated agents have many uses. • in educational, training, and simulation environments, • HLS, virtual simulation for dismounted soldiers, etc • and in entertainment applications. • Second life, Sims, etc • impression of realism.
Background cont’d • Examples: • Virtual Sign Animated Pedagogical Agents • Designed for deaf and hearing impaired people. • Presents sign demonstrations via a series of 3-D graphical animations. • Language learning Animated Pedagogical Agents • Designed to teach children to read • monitors each student’s performance continuously and adapts the study plan • Capable of providing feedback to students
Introduction • Studies have shown that effective individual tutoring is the most powerful mode of teaching. • Logically and financially unfeasible. • Animated pedagogical agents offer enormous promise for interactive learning environments. • Despite the progress, much remains to be done.
Introduction cont’d • Research objective • To design, develop and implement a virtual tutor • To develop a powerful new approach for investigating engaging and effective communication • To develop an environment for supplemental learning purposes. • Create realistic 3D animated model to be used as virtual tutor
Approach • Interface design • The interface consists of three main parts: • an overview window. • the agent window. • the content explanation window. • Quiz interface components: • Question and answer area • Agent window • Report window • Audio and phoneme files generated using tts • Will be changed to a human voice
Approach cont’d • Generating audio and phoneme files • Use avatar-CUAnimate toolkit • Using the text-to-speech component • Tts file – 2 separate files • Simple .wav file • Phoneme .txt file
Other models Are just a few of the models
Evaluation • Preliminary testing of Agent • Tested on Bowie State University students. • Observing subject’s perception. • To assess student: • 12 survey questions on a 5 point Likert scale. • Rated with a score range 1 – 5.
Conclusion & future work • Virtual Tutor can be used to supplement/teach lecture materials. • Students will then be able to view the prepared lectures • Preliminary testing proved hypotheses. • New features will be added to application • More modules developed • Watch instructional videos • User can keep track of grades • Make available online.
Acknowledgements Thanks to: Dr. Yan . Department of Computer science. Research made possible through grants from: NSF: SGER: Research to Improve Communication by Pedagogical Agents (Award No. IIS-0827188).