A FOCUS GROUP STUDY ON TELEPRESENCE ROBOTS IN EDUCATION

Abstract

Recently, there is an intensive interest regarding Telepresence Robots (TR). A TR enables audio and visual interaction between its remote driver and persons around the TR. The remote driver feels like be present physically and socially at the location where the TR is moving around. TR have been used in education at all levels. Various communities of stakeholders such as teachers, students, administrators, and support staff are involved in the introduction and adoption of TR in education. In order to effectively integrate TR in education, the views and perspectives of different stakeholders should be taken into account. For this reason, the partners of an Erasmus+ project “TRinE: Telepresence Robots in Education” conducted 13 focus groups discussions across five countries (Austria, Germany, Greece, Iceland, and Malta). A total of 77 persons in schools and universities gave their perspectives regarding TR in education. Each focus group lasted for about 90 minutes. Initially, the participants provided their demographics and their consent to be videorecorded. Then the moderator guided and stimulated the discussions through a series of 25 questions. Participants pointed out mainly the mobility as a strength of TR; the improved remote access, participation, and sense of presence as opportunities for TR in education; the lack of kinesthetics as a weakness of TR; the lack of WiFi everywhere and participants’ consent as challenges of TR in education. Then, they made several recommendations such as equip TR with hand-like actuators and sensors for kinesthetics. The results of this study could inform the development of educational policies about the use of TR in education; the required infrastructure in educational institutes; the various educational options for integrating TR in the teaching practice; the required functionalities of TR for successful users’ acceptance, and more.