Exploring students' acceptance of Pedagogical Agents: A Pilot Study

The present study aims to investigate factors' influencing students' acceptance of different types of interactive dialogue systems (such as virtual agents and voice chatbots) designed to support learning, taking into account the gender of the system (male/female) and the age they represent (adult/peer). 20 students aged 11-13 years were presented with human voice recordings and video clips of potential pedagogical agents and asked to complete a modified version of the Virtual Agent Voice Acceptance Questionnaire, adapted for learning purposes (VAVAQ-RL). Specifically, the study explores how these factors affect students' acceptance and perception of pedagogical agents in terms of willingness to interact, pragmatic qualities, attractiveness and intelligibility of the voice. Results show that female participants expressed a greater willingness to interact with female voices and female agents compared to male voices and male agents. Female students also rated female voices and female agents as more pragmatic and attractive than male voices and male agents. Finally, female voices were rated as more intelligible than male voices.