Composing the Atmosphere of a Virtual Classroom with a Group of Student Agents

In Japan, the training of teachers mainly relies on in-classroom lectures in universities. It is compensated with the practice for a relatively short period, say only two to three weeks in real schools. The teacher-training programs in Japan therefore lacks the practice of teaching skills and the admission of classes. The result is, many young teachers left their jobs in the first year due to frustration and other mental issues. In order to relieve this situation, we are developing a Wizard-of-OZ (WOZ) based simulation platform of a school environment with computer graphics (CG) animated virtual students. The trainees can interact with the virtual students in this immersive and realistic virtual classroom and practice their teaching and administration skills. The virtual students are operated by an operator (the wizard) from remote with a dedicated interface. In addition to the training purpose, the system is considered to be able to be used in the examination of teacher recruitment as well. In that case, the operator is supposed to be the examination investigator.