Exploring Social Learning in Collaborative Augmented Reality with Virtual Agents as Learning Companions

在医学生教育的背景下，这个网络学习项目将研究如何设计丰富的社交学习体验，整合真实和虚拟的特征(物体或人)，以增强学习过程。为了模拟患者交流的角色扮演体验，该项目将纳入增强现实，这是一种3D技术，通过将虚拟对象/信息实时叠加到物理对象上来增强对真实世界的感知。该项目反映了医学生在未来的远程医疗环境中可能会如何工作，在远程医疗环境中，智能虚拟实体和人工团队可以无缝地交互来护理患者。结果将为虚拟代理/人类的设计提供信息，以支持各种教育领域的学习。这项研究将为医学教育提供强大的新工具，包括与患者的沟通，这将促进终身和及时的培训，并将为促进国家健康、繁荣和福祉做出贡献。研究采用了一个类似人类的、人工智能驱动的、高保真的、情感丰富的虚拟患者，它具有逼真的情感和非语言表达，使用自然语言处理的对话和评估能力。它集成在Microsoft HoloLens中，允许远程参与者审查学生的表现，并通过文本、音频和视频提供反馈。通过基于迭代设计的研究，这项研究将调查：1)学生如何通过代理观察位于同一地点的和远程的虚拟和真实的合作者进行学习；2)学生是否更愿意从位于同一地点或远程的同行、虚拟同行或虚拟教授那里获得教育反馈；以及3)当学生可以选择从真实或虚拟学习伙伴的组合中进行社交学习时，集体代理的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In the context of medical student education, this Cyberlearning project will investigate how to design rich social learning experiences that integrate real and virtual features (objects or people) to enhance the learning process. To simulate a role-playing experience for patient communication, the project will incorporate augmented reality, a 3D technology that enhances perception of the real world through a contextual overlay of virtual objects/information onto physical objects in real time. This project mirrors how medical students may work in a future telemedicine environment where intelligent virtual entities and human teams seamlessly interact for patient care. Results will inform the design of virtual agents/humans to support learning in a variety of educational domains. The research will provides powerful new tools for medical education including communication with patients which will foster lifelong, and just-in-time training and will contribute to advancing national health, prosperity and welfare.The research employs a human-like, artificial intelligence-driven, high-fidelity, Emotive Virtual Patient that has life-like emotions and nonverbal expression with conversational and assessment capability using natural language processing. This is integrated within the Microsoft HoloLens to allow a remote participant to review a student's performance and provide feedback through text, audio, and video. Through iterative design-based research, the research will investigate: 1) how students learn by proxy through observing co-located and remote virtual and real collaborators; 2) whether students prefer to receive educational feedback from a co-located or remote peer, virtual peer, or a virtual professor; and, 3) the effects of collective agency when students can choose to learn socially from combinations of real or virtual learning companions.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.