Improving the quality of the student’s learning experience: an agent-based approach to on-line study guides

Study guides are a valuable resource for the distance education student. With the growing trend of putting courses on-line there an increase in the number of on-line study guides. This paper looks at how distance education students interact with their learning materials and considers ways of making this more engaging and effective by looking at the importance of affective responses. The use of an agent-based approach to on-line study guides is proposed as a way of achieving this. This approach can provide a more personal and conversational style through the use of voice and face which has been shown to be effective at engaging a student and producing a positive effect on the student’s perception of their learning experience as well as increasing performance outcomes. This paper argues that these findings should be applied to on-line study guides to improve the quality of the student’s learning experience.