Immersive AI Companion Design

By the end of this session participants will be able to:

• Design and programme a virtual teaching assistant for use in language education

• Explore the utility of personas in developing effective virtual teaching agents

• Reflect on different types of prompts and their relative efficacy to 

  • create characters and 

  • define areas of knowledge and/or practice with which the character will assist students

• Practise avatarisation, animating an avatar in a virtual world with a customised AI chatbot

• Practise designing language-focused activities in which AI companions can effectively support learning and engagement

• Experience  about the persona and create one or more characters

• Reflect on what part of the lesson these characters can support and what role and tasks the characters will support

• Practise designing prompts for ChatGPT and other Large Language Models to generate memorable NPC AI characters with which students can chat to gain specific knowledge in an engaging and memorable way

• Apply the AI characters in virtual worlds and  

• Design and showcase a language learning activity in a virtual world that uses one or more AI pedagogical agent(s) developed in weeks 1-4. (Final Project)

Session Description

Activities (indicative list):

The participants will explore the use of:

• 3D Virtual simulations of real-world/imaginary scenarios that allow practice skills in a safe environment, 

• Interactive activities that teach language concepts and vocabulary with the use of AI Companions in Virtual Reality and Virtual Worlds, 

• Quests built with the use of AI

• Collaborative projects that require learners to work together to create their AI Companion(s) 

Week 1: January 13–19 

Focus: Prototype. Clarify/Ideate and Implement

Tools: FRAME VR

Objectives: 

By the end of Week one, participants will be able to:

• Explore the utility of personas in developing effective virtual teaching agents in FRAME VR

• Reflect on different types of prompts and their relative efficacy to 

  • create characters and 

  • define areas of knowledge and/or practice with which the character will assist students

Session One: Acquire/ Deepen: Orient, Analyse, Define and Develop

Activities: Entering and navigating FrameVR. Exploration of sample FrameVR environments. Utilising a customised AI companion with which students can interact. 

Session Two: Deepen: Develop, Implement, Clarify.

Activities: Participants practise customising the AI companion in FrameVR to support specific student learning objectives and activities.

Moderators: Helena Galani, Georgia Maneta 

Guest Speaker: Jennifer Hamilton 

Week 2: January 20–26 

Focus: Ideate. Orient and Define

Tools: WondaVR

Objectives: 

By the end of Week two, participants will be able to: 

• Explore the utility of personas in developing effective virtual teaching agents

• Practise avatarisation, animating an avatar in a virtual world with a customised AI chatbot

• Experience  about the persona and create one or more characters

• Reflect on what part of the lesson these characters can support and what role and tasks the characters will support 

Session One: Acquire/Deepen: Orient, Analyse, Define and Develop

Activities: Character creation, prompt engineering and design thinking.

Session Two:  Deepen/Create: Develop, Implement, Clarify.

Activities:  Animate an AI companion using prompt engineering skills.

Introductory brainstorming and discussion of character creation, design thinking, and prompt engineering to set critical parameters and training for customised AI companion behaviours in immersive educational contexts. 

Moderators: Helena Galani, Georgia Maneta

Guest Speaker: Amany Alkhayat

Week 3: January 27–February 2 

Focus: Prototype, Clarify/Ideate and Implement

Tools:  Second Life

Objectives:

By the end of Week three, participants will be able to: 

• Practise designing prompts for ChatGPT and other Large Language Models to generate memorable NPC characters with which students can chat to gain specific knowledge in an engaging and memorable way 

• Reflect on different types of prompts and their relative efficacy to 

  • create characters and 

  • define areas of knowledge and/or practice with which the character will assist students

• Experience  about the persona and create one or more characters

• Reflect on what part of the lesson these characters can support and what role and tasks the characters will support 

Session One: Acquire/Deepen: Orient, Analyse, Define and Develop

Activities: Entering and navigating Second Life.Exploration of sample Second Life environments utilising one or more customised AI companions with which participants can interact. 

Session Two:  Create: Implement, Develop, Clarify

Activities: Participants practise customising AI companion(s) in Second Life to support specific student learning objectives and activities.

Moderators: Helena Galani, Georgia Maneta 

Guest Speakers: Randall Sadler, Heike Philp

Week 4: February 3–9 

Focus: Prototype, Clarify/Ideate and Implement

Tools: OpenSim/Kitely, Second Life

Objectives:

By the end of Week four, participants will be able to: 

• Reflect on different types of prompts and their relative efficacy to 

  • • create characters and 

    • define areas of knowledge and/or practice with which the character will assist students

• Experience  about the persona and create one or more characters

• Reflect on what part of the lesson these characters can support and what role and tasks the characters will support

Session One: Acquire/Deepen: Orient, Analyse, Define and Develop 

Activities: Exploration of sample OpenSim/Kitely environments utilising one or more customised AI companions with which students can interact. 

Session Two:  Create: Implement, Clarify, Develop

Activities: Participants practise customising AI companion(s) in Second Life to support specific student learning objectives and activities.

Moderators: Helena Galani, Georgia Maneta 

Guest Speaker: Heike Philp

Week 5: February 10–16  

Focus: Showcase and Feedback

Tools: All. 

Objectives: 

By the end of Week one, participants will be able to: 

• Showcase their AI characters in virtual worlds and 

• Design a language learning activity in a virtual world that uses one or more AI pedagogical agent(s) developed in weeks 1-4. (Final Project)

Session One: Deepen: Showcase: Project presentations

Session Two: Deepen: Show & Tell. Session evaluation and reflecting. Session Wrap-up 

Activities: Participants present their language learning activity in a virtual world that uses one or more AI companions developed in weeks 1-4.

Moderators: All 

• Content space: Canvas Instructure Free for Teachers 

• Interactive space: Canvas Free for Teachers--Discussions

• Live meeting space: Zoom

The basic free plans for these tools allow participants to visit virtual spaces; some allow limited space and resource creation. Others require a 14-day trial or a premium plan to create objects or host a virtual world 

Virtual Spaces:

Second Life 

OpenSim/Kitely 

FrameVR  

WondaVR  

Language Models: 

OpenAI 

Gemini  

Perplexity 

Other technology tools:

Zoom for Education (Live meeting space)

Canvas free for Teachers (Interactive, Content space (LMS))

Pbworks

Padlet

Storynest.ai/

Genially

YouTube channel

Google Drive

Google slides

Email 

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3. Grivokostopoulou, F., Kovas, K., & Perikos, I. (2020). The effectiveness of embodied pedagogical agents and their impact on students' learning in virtual worlds. Applied Sciences, 10(5), 1739. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10051739 

4. Han, E. (2022). 4 stages of design thinking. Harvard Business School Online. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/stages-of-design-thinking 

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7. Miao, F., Holmes, W., Huang, R., & Zhang, H. (2021). AI and education: Guidance for policy-makers. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000376709 

8. Miao, F., & Cukurova, M. (2024). AI competency framework for teachers. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://doi.org/10.54675/ZJTE2084 

9. Nguyen-Thi, H. (2024). Fostering design thinking mindset for university students with NPCs in the metaverse. Heliyon, 10(15), e34964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34964 

10. Nguyen, A., Ngo, H. N., Hong, Y., et al. (2023). Ethical principles for artificial intelligence in education. Education and Information Technologies, 28, 4221–4241. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11316-w