Scott W. McQuiggan
ABSTRACT
Recent years have seen a growing interest in the role that narrative can play in learning. With the emergence of narrative-centered learning environments that engage students by drawing them into rich interactions with compelling characters, we have begun to see the significant potential offered by immersive story-based learning experiences. In this paper we describe two studies that investigate the impact of empathetic characters on student perceptions of presence. A study was initially conducted with middle school students, and was then replicated with high school students. The results indicate that, for both populations, employing empathetic characters in narrative-centered learning environments significantly increases student perceptions of presence. The studies also reveal that empathetic characters contribute to a heightened sense of student involvement and control in learning situations.
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Index Terms
- The effects of empathetic virtual characters on presence in narrative-centered learning environments
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