Title:Classroom Robots Assist Remote Learners

Above: L-R: Prof. Yianna Vovides and students Andrew Zubiri, Aaron Joya, and Anne Jillian Dumanat (on screen from Doha, Qatar) discuss how people learn with technology during their fall 2019 Methods of Learning and Design course. | Photo: Moruomi Li

Students Andrew Zubiri and Aaron Joya are huddled around a table in the Car Barn working on a group project with their classmate Anne Jillian Dumanat. Dumanat swivels her head to hear her teammate tell a joke. She laughs—all the way from Doha, Qatar.

Georgetown’s Learning, Design, and Technology (LDT) graduate program is piloting telepresence robots to bring distance learners and classroom-based learners face-to-face. In fall 2019, the program tested Kubi robots, whose name means “neck” in Japanese. These tabletop devices have two toothbrush-like prongs that hold a tablet computer in place over a base, allowing a user to swivel their video screen with a range of motion similar to that of a head on a neck. The robot can operate from anywhere in the world, is simple to use, and is relatively inexpensive.

LDT focuses on identifying problems or needs for students and educators and looking for tools and strategies to meet those needs,” says Instructional Designer Randal Ellsworth. In a class comprising distance and in-person learners, LDT faculty identified a problem: The only way to include remote learners was to set up a video conference with stationary screens mounted on flat walls. Although the technology was functional, it did not fit the way humans socially interact.

“We do a lot of small-group activities that require engagement among students who are at a distance with those in the physical classroom,” says Professor Yianna Vovides, director of research and learning design. “We discovered that students at a distance didn’t feel as included in the activities.”

Changing the physical infrastructure of the classroom to be more inclusive of distance learners can be expensive, so the program identified the Kubi robots to integrate with their existing stock of iPads.

“Kubis allow distance students to have more control over what’s happening in the physical space,” says Vovides. “They are able to move the Kubi up, down, left, and right to see what’s happening. They can zoom in or out.” Additionally, the light-weight Kubi can be picked up from any table and moved to another surface when classes split into groups.

Eddie Maloney, executive director of The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship and founding director of LDT, says that adapting to the needs of future learners is a priority for Georgetown. “The university is looking at classrooms of the future, trying to understand that a one-size classroom does not fit all,” says Maloney. The future of higher ed is not going to all be residential or online institutions—teaching will more and more be a hybrid between the two.

As college student populations increasingly shift away from full-time, traditional-age learners, Maloney says, forward-thinking colleges are building in flexibility for both intentional and unintentional remote learning needs. Equity and inclusion, he says, requires designing learning opportunities for students who have children at home, who must care for a parent, who travel for work, who communicate better through writing than in-person discussion, who have a disability, or who get sick partway through a semester.

“Life changes unexpectedly,” says Maloney. “As a Jesuit institution, we want to meet students where they are and reach as many students as possible.”