Edinburgh Napier University

  Online course lectures often consist of presentation slides with an inset "talking-head" video of the instructor. As the time and financial costs associated with producing these lectures are often high, employing a robot or a digital agent in lieu of an instructor could radically decrease the time and costs required. This video submission describes an initial study in which agent-based alternatives to a "talking-head" video are assessed. University students who viewed a lecture with a robot had similar recall scores but significantly lower ratings for likeability than those who viewed a lecture with a person, perhaps because the robot's voice was a negative social cue. Preliminary results suggest that appropriately designed agents may be useful for online lectures.