Project Spotlight

Michigan State Tests Telepresence Robots for Online Students

Photo: Michigan State University Board of Trustees

Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI, has been experimenting with telepresence robots that let online students participate in face-to-face classes.

The university offers a doctoral program in educational psychology and educational technology, which is available in both face-to-face and distance education formats, but the university has integrated the two options into a synchronous, hybrid model — a single, integrated program with online students typically participating via Skype or similar telepresence system on a fixed monitor in the classroom. However, integrating the local and online students into the same classes made it difficult to ensure that both groups of students were treated equally.

"Our big concern is that if you aren't physically present, you become a second-class citizen," said John Bell, associate professor of counseling, educational psychology and special education at Michigan State. "You're there, you can listen and you can speak, but online students would say, 'Excuse me, can I say something now,' revealing they see themselves as not having the full rights of a face-to-face student."

Testing the Technology

Bell is the director of MSU's CEPSE/COE Design Studio, which supports faculty in the use of technologies to enhance teaching and learning. Last fall, the Design Studio worked with the professor and students in CEP 956, a doctoral-level course called Mind, Social Media, and Society, to test the telepresence robots in the synchronous, hybrid environment. "We were very interested in the telepresence-type technology that potentially makes a shift in how students see themselves and how other students and the instructors see these online students, more like just another student in class," said Bell.

Two of the online students were on KUBI telepresence robots from Revolve Robotics, two were on Double robots from Double Robotics and the remainder of the online students were on wall-mounted screens, as they had been in the past. The KUBI robots use iPads mounted on a pedestal that can pan and tilt. The online student's face appears on the iPad screen, and the student can rotate and tilt the pedestal to control his or her point of view. The Double robots also have a screen but are mounted on a tall, mobile pedestal, so the online student can move the robot around the room.

Results

The university has been offering the synchronous, hybrid classes for about five years, and the students had already participated in many classes in that format, but this was the first time online students used telepresence robots rather than fixed screens. The robots let the online students "sit" in the class rather than watch from the walls, and let them look freely around the room. "The students were ecstatic," said Bell. "They expressed that this was a game changer. It changed how they engaged with the class. One student said, 'This was the first time it mattered to me if I knew the names of the face-to-face students because I could turn and look at them.' That was a dramatic response."

Bell pointed out that some of the enthusiasm could be the honeymoon effect and the novelty could wear off. "So that we don't know," he said. "But we do know that the initial response was overwhelmingly positive, both by the students sitting in the class physically and those who joined online."

The response from the professors was also very positive, according to Bell, because "it was now possible to view the class as a more integrated group instead of thinking of two different groups of people, where the online student was up on a screen on the wall. Now the online student was in effect sitting right next to the instructor."