Robots in situated learning classrooms with immediate feedback mechanisms to improve students' learning performance

Because of time and space restrictions and the limited interaction capabilities of robots, it is preferable for teachers to construct a learning environment using digital reality in conjunction with robots. Doing so enables students to learn and interact in any scenario relevant to textbook material that can be effectively digitalized, while also promoting human-robot interaction. Here, an interactive situated learning approach was developed to improve students' learning performances. The students and robot role-played characters and immersed themselves in digital situated learning tasks and challenges. This approach included a real-time feedback mechanism to guide and evaluate the knowledge application of the students. The evaluation was performed during interactions with the robot, virtual objects, and virtual characters based on textbook context and content. The experiment was conducted during an English as a second language course for junior high school students. A total of 101 students were assigned to three groups with different approaches and their learning performance was evaluated. The experimental results indicated that students who learned with the proposed approach exhibited better learning achievement and significant positive effects in terms of learning motivation and engagement. Furthermore, interaction with physical robots improved student learning achievements significantly compared with virtual interaction. Moreover, motivation in the learning process could be enhanced using authentic objects and scenarios in the digital situated learning environment.