Students’ views on telepresence robots in education

Abstract

To successfully introduce Telepresence Robots (TRs)in education, the students’ viewpoints should be taken into consideration. Partners of the Erasmus+ project “TRinE: Telepresence Robots in Education”conducted interviews and focus groups discussions with 25 students across Germany, Greece, Iceland, and Malta. Students praised the mobility and ease-of-use of TRs as well as the feeling of presence while attending classes from a distance. However, they criticized TRs’lack of hands-like actuators, high cost, limited maneuverability, limited battery life, andpoor sound quality. In addition, the educational institutes’ buildings pose obstacles (e.g., stairs, elevators, and poor Wi-Fi connectivity) to the smooth movement of TRs. Furthermore, using TRs may cause less face-to-face interaction, attention disruption, and privacy issues. Finally, students made several proposals to TRs’ manufacturers such as creating TRs with hands, alarms, and better sound quality as well as to educational institutes such as appropriate TRsmanagement policies