Challenging engineering stereotypes with pedagogical agents
Dr. Baylor as PI and co-PI Dr. Ashby Plant were awarded $500,000
from the National Science Foundation for the project "Pedagogical
agents as social models: Challenging gender-related stereotypes of
engineering." The interdisciplinary project goals are 1) to
systematically investigate the effectiveness of pedagogical agents as
social models to influence girls' beliefs and stereotypes about
engineering; and, in parallel, 2) to use pedagogical agents as a
vehicle to systematically examine the nature of the belief-changing
process.
Investigation of pedagogical agent features that promote learning and motivation
Funded by NSF Grant #0218692 through the CISE-IIS (Computer
Information Science Engineering-Intelligent Information Systems)
Division. Dr. Amy Baylor is the principal investigator for this
$450,000 4-year project to investigate how the following pedagogical
agent features contribute to learning, motivation, and perceived agent
value:
- A) agent image (character, realism, gender, ethnicity);
- B) agent animation (task-related, expressive animations); and,
- C) agent pre-defined roles (expert, motivational advisor, co-collaborator).