Kawaii-Style Pedagogical Agents Designs in Virtual Learning Environment: A Research Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Pedagogical agents are animated virtual characters that play human instructional roles in educational settings. Towards the advancement of computer technology and communication, human learning is becoming more advanced by using technologies such as pedagogical agent. Previously, the look of pedagogical agents has been designed with own imagination of the designers without assessing its impact on the learning. In addition, there are limited researches on the visual appearance of pedagogical agent. Therefore, a further study is required to fill this gap and provide appropriate visual appearance for pedagogical agent that will contribute to enhancing students’ motivation in learning. Accordingly, the present research proposes kawaii designs for the facial appearance of pedagogical agent. Eventually, students’ affective state on the kawaii style pedagogical agents and relation towards motivation in learning also will be studied. Therefore, this paper proposes a conceptual framework that acts as guidelines in the development of kawaii style pedagogical agents to increase students’ motivation in virtual learning environment. Heidig & Clarebout’s PALD model, Keller’s ARCS model of motivational design, Nittono’s two-layer model of kawaii and Watson & Tellegen’s Circumplex model of affect are used as a basis to construct conceptual framework in this study.