Students' Satisfaction on the Design of Kawaii Style Pedagogical Agent in the Virtual Learning Environment

Abstract

A pedagogical agent is an on–screen virtual character that is used to serve instructional purposes in virtual learning environment (VLE). Of late, research about pedagogical agents has received increasing interest among researchers, but still there is little research on the facial appearance of animated pedagogical agent. Facial design of pedagogical agent is a key method to achieve believability among students. Pedagogical agent with more ideal facial design has greater motivational impact. Notably, a “cute” looking face is very essential as audience identifies with it the most. The term “cute” reminds one of the famous Japanese cultural term which is known as kawaii. Hence, this study aimed to develop kawaii design of pedagogical agent and look at its effect on students’ satisfaction in VLE.  Successive Approximation Model (SAM) is the basis for design and development of the pedagogical agents and VLE. A set of Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ) was used to obtain feedback from students after the completion of learning process with the kawaii design of pedagogical agent in VLE. Overall, it can be concluded that the level of acceptance and satisfaction of students towards the kawaii design of pedagogical agent in VLE is good and positive.