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Do students learn from video lessons presented by pedagogical agents of different racial and gender types equivalently to those delivered by a real human instructor? How do the race and gender of these agents impact students’ learning experiences and outcomes? In this between-subject design study, college students were randomly assigned to view a six 9-minute video lesson on chemical bonds, presented by pedagogical agents varying in gender (male, female) and race (Asian, Black, White), or to view the original lesson with a real human instructor. In comparing learning with a human instructor versus with a pedagogical agent of various races and genres, ANOVAs revealed no significant differences in learning outcomes (retention and transfer scores) or learner emotions, but students reported a stronger social connection with the human instructor over pedagogical agents. Students reported stronger positive emotions and social connections with female agents over male agents. Additionally, there was limited evidence of a race-matching effect, with White students showing greater positive emotion while learning with pedagogical agents of the same race. These findings highlight the limitations of pedagogical agents compared to human instructors in video lessons, while partially reflecting gender stereotypes and intergroup bias in instructor evaluations. 

Abstract The positivity principle states that people learn better from instructors who display positive emotions rather than negative emotions. In two experiments, students viewed a short video lecture on a statistics topic in which an instructor stood next to a series of slides as she lectured and then they took either an immediate test (Experiment 1) or a delayed test (Experiment 2). In a between-subjects design, students saw an instructor who used her voice, body movement, gesture, facial expression, and eye gaze to display one of four emotions while lecturing: happy (positive/active), content (positive/passive), frustrated (negative/active), or bored (negative/passive). First, learners were able to recognize the emotional tone of the instructor in an instructional video lecture, particularly by more strongly rating a positive instructor as displaying positive emotions and a negative instructor as displaying negative emotions (in Experiments 1 and 2). Second, concerning building a social connection during learning, learners rated a positive instructor as more likely to facilitate learning, more credible, and more engaging than a negative instructor (in Experiments 1 and 2). Third, concerning cognitive engagement during learning, learners reported paying more attention during learning for a positive instructor than a negative instructor (in Experiments 1 and 2). Finally, concerning learning outcome, learners who had a positive instructor scored higher than learners who had a negative instructor on a delayed posttest (Experiment 2) but not an immediate posttest (Experiment 1). Overall, there is evidence for the positivity principle and the cognitive-affective model of e-learning from which it is derived. 

This study examined how well people can recognize and relate to animated pedagogical agents of varying ethnicities/races and genders. For both Study 1 (realistic-style agents) and Study 2 (cartoon-style agents), participants viewed brief video clips of virtual agents of varying racial/ethnic categories and gender types and then identified their race/ethnicity and gender and rated how human-like and likable the agent appeared. Participants were highly accurate in identifying Black and White agents but were less accurate for Asian, Indian, and Hispanic agents. Participants were accurate in recognizing gender differences. Participants rated all types of agents as moderately human-like, except for White agents. Likability ratings were lowest for White and male agents. The same pattern of results was obtained across two independent studies with different participants and different onscreen agents, which indicates that the results are not solely due to one specific set of agents. Consistent with the Media Equation Hypothesis and the Alliance Hypothesis, this work shows that people are sensitive to the race/ethnicity and gender of onscreen agents and relate to them differently. These findings have implications for how to design animated pedagogical agents for improved multimedia learning environments in the future and serve as a crucial first step in highlighting the possibility and feasibility of incorporating diverse onscreen virtual agents into educational computer software. 

Pedagogical agents are animated characters embedded within an e-learning environment to facilitate learning. With the growing understanding of the complex interplay between emotions and cognition, there is a need to design agents that can provide believable simulated emotional interactions with the learner. Best practices from the animation industry could be used to improve the believability of the agents. A well-known best practice is that the movements of limbs/torso/head play the most important role in conveying the character's emotion, followed by eyes/face and lip sync, respectively, in a long/medium shot. The researchers' study tested the validity of this best practice using statistical methods. It investigated the contribution of 3 body channels (torso/limbs/head, face, speech) to the expression of 5 emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise) in a stylized agent in a full body shot. Findings confirm the biggest contributor to the perceived believability of the animated emotion is the character's body, followed by face and speech respectively, across 4 out of 5 emotions.