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Animal companions: Fostering children's effort‐making by nurturing virtual pets
Author(s) -
Chen ZhiHong,
Liao Calvin,
Chien TzuChao,
Chan TakWai
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
british journal of educational technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.79
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1467-8535
pISSN - 0007-1013
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.01003.x
Subject(s) - underpinning , usability , task (project management) , psychology , quality (philosophy) , cognition , field (mathematics) , human–computer interaction , virtual learning environment , computer science , applied psychology , pedagogy , engineering , philosophy , civil engineering , mathematics , systems engineering , epistemology , neuroscience , pure mathematics
Virtual character is a significant application in the research field of technology‐enhanced learning. In this study, the concept of animal companions, ‘non‐smart’ virtual characters, is proposed as a way to encourage students to promote effort‐making learning behaviours. The two underpinning design rationales are first discussed followed by the description of the development of a practical application, the My‐Pet v2 system. A preliminary experiment was conducted to examine the system usability in terms of cognitive, affective and time‐on‐task characteristics. The results reveal that participants in the group using a complete version of My‐Pet v2 showed better quality of effort‐making learning behaviours. Some implications and future research directions are also discussed.