iTalk2Learn partners, Birkbeck College (BBK) and the Institute of Education (IOE), went back to a school in Lancaster to run Wizard-of-Oz studies to investigate how speech can be used to tailor feedback.

At IOE and BBK, we were particularly interested in how the affective state of a student can be detected through speech and other interactions with the platform, and then used to provide feedback that is tailored to the specific affective state.

In particular, we are interested in exploring whether there is an effect of feedback acceptance, as well as a change in affective state, if a certain type of feedback is provided for a particular affective state.

For example, a student might be frustrated if she/he is having problems solving a particular task. Frustration can reduce motivation and also increase cognitive load.

Instead of providing the student with problem-solving feedback (which assumes motivation and the willingness/ability to follow the advice), reflective prompts can be more effective, because the student can be given the opportunity to talk about the frustration. This might then increase the student’s motivation and also reduce cognitive load.

Additionally, we investigated whether the presentation of feedback has an effect on acceptance and affective state during learning.

We are currently analysing the data and hope to have initial results soon. These will help us to refine and develop the support offered by the iTalk2Learn platform.

If you would like to know more about these studies, please get in touch!