Animated Pedagogical Agents: An Opportunity to be Grasped?

In open learning environments students are confronted with complex tasks. Learners have control over the environment and decide themselves over the use of support tools. However, research indicates that merely providing students with these tools does not result in their actual use. In this article possibilities of animated pedagogical agents to enhance the use of support tools are explored. First, a typology is constructed to describe and compare the different pedagogical agents from an instructional design perspective. Second currently available pedagogical agents are analyzed, and finally empirical research on pedagogical agents in educational settings is reviewed. The conclusion discusses future research perspectives. ********** The use of open learning environments is advocated when learning complex problem-solving skills (Jonassen, 1997). These environments are characterized by at least three features. First, students receive a complex task that has to be examined from different perspectives to generate a suitable solution (Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson, & Coulson, 1991). Second, support tools are embedded in the environment. Their use may help to solve the problem by structuring the problem-solving process or by providing problem-solving tools. And third, learners are responsible for their own learning and decide, themselves, on the use of these supportive elements. In other words, there is a large amount of learner control (Hannafin, 1995). In spite of strong theoretical arguments in favor of open learning environments, research demonstrates that students in open learning environments do not optimally use accessible support tools (Clarebout, Elen, Lowyck, Van den Ende, & Lagana, 2000; Crooks, Klein, Jones, & Dwyer, 1996, Land, 2000). Students seem not always capable to make the appropriate choices (Clark, 1991; Large, 1996; Hill & Hannafin, 2001; Lee & Lehman, 1993; Shaw, Johnson, & Ganeshan, 1999). This has a negative impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of leaming in open learning environments. How to encourage learners to make more ample and deliberate use of support in open learning environments is therefore an important question from an instructional design perspective. Two developments seem especially relevant in this respect. The first one relates to the interaction between learner characteristics and support characteristics. Research within the aptitude-treatment-interaction tradition revealed strong interactions between individual learner characteristics and instructional interventions (Snow, 1986; Snow & Swanson, 1992). This also pertains to support devices. Clark (1991) demonstrated that both too much or not enough support may be detrimental to learning. A second development pertains to the delivery of support. Technological evolutions and especially the development of so called pedagogical agents may provide possibilities to individualize support and encourage learners to use it. Pedagogical agents are, by definition, animated characters designed to operate in an educational setting for supporting or facilitating learning (Shaw, et al., 1999). They can adapt their support to learning paths of students and provide students with nonverbal feedback (Gregoire, Zettlemoyer, & Lester, 1999; Johnson, Rickel, & Lester, 2000). Pedagogical agents have been primarily described and studied from a technological perspective (Johnson et al., 2000; Johnson, Rickel, Stiles, & Munro, 1997; Lester, Voerman, Towns, & Callaway, 1997, Graesser, Wiemer-Hastings, Wiemer-Hastings, & Kreuz, 1999). Nevertheless, studies with a more learning oriented perspective are beginning to emerge (e.g., Moreno & Mayer, 2000). To consider the use of pedagogical agents in instructional design endeavors and to study their role in encouraging students to use help functions, a common instructional typology is needed to describe these agents. …