PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The use of robots in the area of education is rapidly gaining momentum. Education faces restructuring and modernization in the forthcoming age of robots, thus necessitating research meeting the requirements of this development. In this, focusing on robots’ acceptance and applicability in educational contexts, right from the very beginning, is crucial. Therefore, this dissertation thesis has addressed this issue. It has striven to evaluate factors which contribute to a successful introduction of robots into education in a systematic manner. The strengths of the current work lie in its interdisciplinary nature, theoretical fundament, and the application of empirical and experimental methods.

In practical terms, a set of studies have offered insights on how the implementation and application of robots in education could be facilitated. To do so, they operated on three different levels: First, the focus was on end users’ attitudes toward educational robots. It was shown that their attitudes and willingness to use educational robots were moderate. However, the results also indicated that the acceptance of educational robots could be fostered by the promotion of people’s general technical interest and a targeted use of robots in individual or small-group learning activities, in domains related to science and technology. In addition, it was found that user involvement in an educational robot’s design process can increase people’s general acceptance of educational robots. Second, the work focused on how to effectively design a human-robot interaction (HRI) for learning purposes by building upon the cooperative learning paradigm found in educational literature. Actual HRI experiments confirmed that a robot’s physical presence was beneficial for the learning experience, and implied that positive interdependence with a robot, social support from it, and mutual feedback about the learning process were positively related to the learning experience and the learners’ perception of the robot. Third, when tackling the issue of the ideal educational robot design, it has become clear that people’s perception of robots is influenced by context- and person-specific factors. To trigger a higher acceptance of educational robots, robotics research should match potential end users’ educational robot design concepts, for example, machinelike appearance and functionality as well as privacy and safety requirements.

Taken together, this dissertation presents a sound basis for identifying issues related to the implementation and application of educational robots. However, research is still far from having completed the development of strategies for implementing and using social robots in education meaningfully. Consequently, potential future research directions will be discussed in light of the obtained results.