Online Students Favor Course Guides Who Look Like Them
High drop-out rates plague online courses.
As a result, researchers are constantly looking for ways to make online education more personal and engaging.
Online training companies are experimenting with “virtual agents.” These agents appear as online helper images on course screens. Sometimes called mentors, these agents offer encouragement and feedback as students move through online courses.
Computerized mentors essentially serve as motivational agents. They emulate old school teachers whose words of encouragement have reliably helped struggling students persist and achieve in the classroom environment for centuries.
