Robot learning improves student engagement

Stationed around the class, each robot has a mounted 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, found 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, said that instead of looking at a screen full of faces as she does with traditional videoconferencing, she can 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 said. The technology, Greenhow added, also has implications for telecommuters working remotely and students with disabilities or who are ill.