Deliverable 4.4 - INSEAD CALT

AtGentive IST-4-027529-STP - Attentive Agents for Collaborative LearnersFigure 9 - Example of an AtGentNet "portlet"2.2.5 The animated AgentThe formative evaluation phase of AtGentive showed that an animated agent in the formof a young woman (see Figure 1) would be the most acceptable character for AtGentNet.This character was named “AtGentiGirl”, after “Elastigirl” of popular culture (a“superhero” who appears in DC Comics 1 and the feature file “The Incredibles” 2 ). Thisname was chose due to the character’s similarity of appearance to this fictional characterand the AtGentNet user demographics (a median age group of = 26-35) fitting with thetarget audience for “Elastigirl”.For AtGentNet, the animated agent only appears as a result of an explicit user requestfor help (and only for the experimental group). As described above, the agent is used todeliver Scenario N1 – (Initial) learning guidance. The embodied agent “walks” around thescreen, pointing at relevant items and giving an explanation.2.2.6 Continual developmentAtGentNet underwent refinements at the pre-pilot stage. These changes were basedupon further analysis of the system by INSEAD, AtGentive partners’ feedback andunderstandings gained from the formative evaluations. However, once the pilot studybegan only essential changes were made to the software.2.2.7 User Evaluation PilotAll students on the 2007 ITM training course took part in the user pilot, which ran for thewhole of the training course (May to October 2007). One country was excluded from thestudy (and used a separate version of the ICDT platform) as it was felt that the internetinfrastructure in that country was not sufficiently mature to support the pilot. This gave 27participants for the pilot.1 Elasti-Girl: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasti-Girl2 The Incredibles, the movie : http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/incredibles/chars_pop2.htmlDel 4.4: AtGentive Final Evaluation Report page 18