Using affective embodied agents in information literacy education

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the impact of affective embodied agents (EAs) on students' learning performance in an online tutorial that teaches academic information seeking skills. A hundred and twenty tertiary students from two major universities participated in the between-subjects experiment. The results suggested that the use of affective EAs significantly increased students' learning motivation and enjoyment, compared to neutral-EAs or text-only conditions. However, there were no significant differences in knowledge retention between the three groups. This study paves the way for a better understanding of embedding affective EAs in online information literacy (IL) education. Furthermore, the improvement in students' learning motivation and enjoyment can serve as a basis for future research in this context.