CHS: Small: Designing verbal and nonverbal behaviors to increase immediacy and rapport in virtual tutors

魅力是一种有效的沟通方式，也是一种强有力的说服手段。在课堂上，教师使用魅力装置来激励学生并帮助他们学习。教师的言语行为（如幽默的使用）和非言语行为（如使用凝视，手势和面部表情）一直表现出对学生的认知和情感学习的积极影响。事实上，教师的魅力，经常在教育背景下的即时行为的背景下研究，是一个最大的因素，有助于教师的效能感。对于未来的劳动力，学习越来越多地发生在虚拟和在线课堂上，例如大规模开放式在线课程（MOOC）。能够在在线环境中为虚拟导师带来这种魅力行为可以大大提高学生的学习。为此，本项目将调查这种魅力行为的设计，并将衡量魅力虚拟导师在培养学生的动机和参与度以及提高学习成果方面的功效。 除了在虚拟和在线教育中的应用外，本项目研究的魅力行为还可以应用于谈判和健康等技术提供说服手段的许多应用中。本项目解决的重要问题是，如何在在线和虚拟环境中实现即时性，这是影响教师效能的最大因素之一。该团队将把魅力行为分解为可以由虚拟代理执行的语言和非语言通信设备。然后，这些设备将通过一些活动在虚拟代理中进行评估和实施。 首先，该团队将根据现有的关于魅力和教师即时性的文献，为虚拟导师开发脚本教程对话。最先进的语音合成技术将被用来为虚拟导师开发一个有魅力的声音。最后，一套程序动画工具，如智能体和小脑，将被用来产生非语言手势，有助于感知魅力。该项目将采用迭代设计的方法，对每个阶段产生的行为进行经验评估，评估其对感知魅力和学生学习者的影响，并用于为下一阶段的代理行为设计提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Charisma is an effective form of communication and a powerful device of persuasion. In classrooms, teachers use charismatic devices to inspire students and help them learn. A teacher's verbal behavior (such as the use of humor) and nonverbal behavior (such as the use of gaze, gesture, and facial expressions) have consistently demonstrated a positive impact on students' cognitive and affective learning. In fact, a teacher's charisma, often studied in the context of immediacy behaviors in an educational context, is one of the biggest factors contributing to a teacher's efficacy. For the future workforce, learning is increasingly taking place in virtual and online classrooms, such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Being able to bring such charismatic behaviors to virtual tutors in online environments could greatly increase student learning. To that end, this project will investigate the design of such charismatic behaviors and will measure the efficacy of a charismatic virtual tutor in fostering student motivation and engagement and in improving learning outcomes. In addition to its applications to virtual and online education, the charismatic behavior studied through this project can be applied to many applications where technology provides devices of persuasion, including negotiation and health.This project addresses the important issue of how to realize immediacy, one of the biggest factors contributing to teacher efficacy, in online and virtual environments. The team will break down charismatic behavior into both verbal and nonverbal communication devices that can be executed by virtual agents. These devices will then be evaluated and implemented in virtual agents through a number of activities. First, the team will develop scripted tutorial dialogue for a virtual tutor based on existing literature on charisma and teacher immediacy. State-of-the-art speech synthesis will then be used to develop a charismatic voice for the virtual tutor. Finally, a suite of procedural animation tools, such as Smartbody and Cerebella, will be used to generate nonverbal gestures that contribute to perceived charisma. The project will take the approach of iterative design, with behavior generated at each phase empirically evaluated on its impact on perceived charisma and student learners and used to inform the design of agent behaviors in the next phase.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.