Abstract:

Digitization is taking place unchallenged in all areas of life. The accompanying automation is an integral part of this development. The "classroom" is also affected by this development. Be it that the use of mobile devices is increasingly part of the interaction with students, be it that online offers such as Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) are increasingly used in the educational context. In the future, it would also be conceivable for robots to take over parts of the interaction in the classroom.

To check the students' knowledge level or for repetition purposes, there is the possibility to conduct quizzes via Moodle or other platforms. These quizzes are rather traditional and not particularly stimulating so that there is no great incentive for students to take them unless learning points or similar are awarded. Not everywhere are these types of quizzes used in the classroom. Game-based learning platforms like Kahoot! are finding more and more use in teaching. The quizzes that can be conducted via the web service Kahoot! are more exciting and entertaining for students than those that are possible via Moodle, for example. The results for each question are available for everyone to see, which adds a competitive and playful aspect.

Nevertheless, if game-based learning platforms such as Kahoot! are used, the quiz progress is generally not commented, but rather "worked through". That leads to a gap, since neither the wrong nor the right answers are commented on and thus a justification for right and wrong is missing. Our approach now is to have a humanoid robot take over the moderation of these quizzes. For this reason, we have implemented a service that enables the humanoid robot Pepper to perform a Kahoot! quiz in class. The inclusion of Pepper as the moderator of the quiz could increase its appeal to the students and give the quiz an additional innovative aspect. Among other things, one advantage is that it is possible for the robot to keep track of the complete course of the quiz at any time and to comment on it (e.g., now on the first place is…). Regardless of how long the quiz lasts and how many questions it contains.

In initial work, we have found that the answers Pepper gives students are a lot of fun. Not only is it possible for the robot to give high quality and correct comments on the participants' results with every execution, but the way Pepper comments on the results also has a high fun factor for the participants. Especially when Pepper makes it clear that previous learning assignments may not have been handled well. Pepper can also give rude answers and this still has a positive effect on the students' perception.

As a result, we have developed a set of possible comments on students' quiz results that have a "rude" character, such as "you noobs you should do the reading assignments more conscientiously" and have them evaluated by several classes. In doing so, we had six classes with a total of 121 students evaluate texts on paper and had Pepper say additional texts himself. The result was that just reading the comments on paper that Pepper would give was seen as less "entertaining" than if it were done by Pepper. This means that it makes a very different impression to read the comments on paper than to hear them spoken by the humanoid robot Pepper. The result is an evaluation and ranking of how and in which way Pepper can give comments to make the interaction as stimulating as possible.

Keywords:

Humanoid robot, pepper, Kahoot, digitization, human robot interaction.