Evaluating the Effects of Personalized Appearance on Telepresence Robots for Education

Telepresence robots hold the potential to allow absent students to remain physically embodied and socially connected in the classroom. In this work, we investigate the effects of telepresence robot personalization on K-12 students» perceptions of the robot, perceptions of themselves, and feelings of self-presence. We conducted a between-subjects, 2-condition user study (N=24) on robot personalization. In this study, 9- to 13-year-old participants remotely completed an educational exercise using a telepresence robot. Lessons learned from this study will inform our continued work on using remote presence robots to preserve the educational and social experiences of students during extended absences from school.