Virtual Agent Constructionism: Experiences from Health Professions Students Creating Virtual Conversational Agent Representations of Patients

Abstract

This paper reports on applying constructionism with virtual agents in an educational setting. We introduce a methodology - Virtual Agent Constructionism, which involves health professions students creating virtual conversational agent representations of patients as part of coursework. The proposed methodology was implemented as an exercise in an educational course for three consecutive academic years. The aim of this paper is threefold - (i) to demonstrate feasibility of health professions students creating virtual agents in an educational setting as part of coursework, (ii) to report feedback from the students about the experience of creating virtual agents, and (iii) to report on initial trends that suggest that creating virtual agents helps health professions students improve their interviewing and interpersonal skills. In addition to these three innovations, we also present the virtual agents created as educational artifacts that can be used to train future students with their interpersonal skills.