ABSTRACT
We have been developing learning environments with animated conversational agents. The agents manage a mixed-initiative dialog between the learner and the computer system either by a direct conversational interaction or by serving as a navigational guide on a web site. Two of the systems simulate human tutors by (a) presenting difficult questions that require deep reasoning, (b) attempting to comprehend the learner’s typed input, (c) formulating dialog acts that are sensitive to the learner’s contributions, and (d) speaking to the student with the animated agent. AutoTutor teaches computer literacy whereas Why/AutoTutor teaches conceptual physics (Graesser, VanLehn, Rose, Jordan, & Harter, 2001). The Human Use Regulatory Affairs Advisor (HURAA) teaches officers in the military about the ethical use of human subjects on a web site with a search facility that accesses documents through questions posed in natural language.
