Scholarly interest in artificial intelligence (AI) has surged as researchers delve into its transformative impact on various aspects of our lives. AI poses both benefits and challenges, particularly in the context of educators' endeavors to comprehend the intricacies of students' learning processes. Although the use of AI to enhance and assist…

Substantial evidence now supports pedagogical applications of virtual worlds; however, most research supporting virtual worlds for education has been conducted using researcher-developed Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVE). Second Life (SL) is a MUVE that has been adopted by a large number of academic institutions; however, little research has…

Conflicts occur when learners interact with pedagogical agents and virtual characters. Such conflicts--arising from technological limitations, psychosocial perceptions, and pedagogical inadequacies--hinder communication and interaction between virtual characters and learners, and impede successful engagement with learning tasks and experiences. To…