A new study of Michigan State University’s pioneering robot-learning course found out that online students who use innovative robots feel more engaged and connected to the instructor and students in the classroom.

The robots are stationed around the class and one of them is provided with a video screen controlled by the remote user that lets the student pan around the room to see and talk with the instructor and fellow students participating in-person.

The study, published in Online Learning, shows that robot learning generally benefits remote students more than traditional videoconferencing, in which multiple students are displayed on a single screen.

Christine Greenhow, MSU associate professor of educational psychology and educational technology, explained that with the traditional videoconferencing method she would look at a screen full of faces, with arguable limited interaction. Instead, the innovative method enables her to look a robot-learner in the eye – at least digitally.

“It was such a benefit to have people individually embodied in robot form – I can look right at you and talk to you,” Greenhow explained.

The technology, Greenhow added, can largely benefit telecommuters working remotely and students with disabilities or who are ill. MSU’s College of Education started implementing robot learning about two years ago, in 2015. Greenhow and Benjamin Gleason, a former MSU doctoral student who is now a faculty member at Iowa State University, studied an educational technology doctoral course in which students participated in one of three ways: in-person, by robot and by traditional videoconferencing.

Courses that combine face-to-face and online learning, defined hybrid or blended learning, are widely considered the approach with most potential for increasing access to higher education and students’ learning outcomes. Accordingly, the number of blended-learning classrooms has increased dramatically in the past decade and could eventually make up 80 percent or more of all university classes, the study notes.

With traditional videoconferencing, Greenhow said, remote students generally can’t tell if the instructor is looking at them and can feel not involved or experience difficulties in joining the discussion. “These students often feel like they’re interrupting, like they’re not fully participating in the class. And as an instructor, that’s like death – I can’t have that.”

“The main takeaway here,” Greenhow observed, “is that students participating with the robots felt much more engaged and interactive with the instructor and their classmates who were on campus.”

To enjoy the robot learning experience and engage the robot from home, students just need to download free software onto their computer.

Written by: Pietro Paolo Frigenti

Reference List: MsuToday. (2017). Robot learning improves student engagement. Retrieved online on 4th December, 2017 at: http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/robot-learning-improves-student-engagement/