Abstract
People can be highly responsive to the so-called “personality frame” through which to learn. Such framing may be achieved through a live human actor, a tutor agent, a non-playable character in a game, a representation of a professional, a digital avatar in a virtual world, an artificial intelligence (AI) robot, or some other representation of an individual being. Various types of characters—real or imaginary, dynamic (animated) or static, humanoid or animal or other—may appear in online teaching and learning. Various dimensions of a character's appearance, sound, communications, behaviors, actions, and other dimensions may communicate something of their designed (scripted) personality and motivations, resulting in learner engagement, learner interactions with the learning. This chapter explores visual-based character origination, design, development, and evolution for learning.