Acceptance of Telepresence Robots During Group Work - An Experimental Study

Abstract

Telepresence robots are an emerging technology that enables social interaction between physically dispersed users. In this research, an exploratory study was conducted to get first insights with regard to technical affordances, usability and user acceptance of a telepresence robot in the context of learning related group work. Results indicate that the group work was successful and that it can be worthwhile to employ a telepresence robot for such a usage scenario. Furthermore, the case study identifies technical and social issues, which should be tackled to optimize such group work.