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Building a Social Conversational Pedagogical Agent: Design Challenges and Methodological approaches

The chapter discusses some design challenges encountered when developing a conversational pedagogical agent. By tracing the historical roots of pedagogical agents in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), we discern central developments of creating an agent that is both knowledgeable and fosters a social relationship with the learner. Some main challenges when attempting to develop a pedagogical agent of this kind regard: i) learners’ expectations on the agent’s knowledge profile and social profile, ii) dealing with learners’ engagement in off-task conversation and iii) managing potential abuse of the agent. We illustrate these challenges and possible ways to address them, with reference to an ongoing R&D project, and with a focus on the design of a pedagogical agent’s visual embodiment and of its conversational capacities. (Less)