A Review of Educational Agents: Definitions, Features, Roles and Development Trends

The educational agent is a typical product of the integration of technology and education. As a result of the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology, its functionality and applicability have significantly improved, garnering extensive attention in the educational world. As a computer-generated virtual agent, it can perceive the educational environment and autonomously respond to the learners' needs. This article reviews the definitions, features, roles, and development trends of educational agents to find that being educational, autonomous, proactive, and socially interactive is their inherent features; that they can play multiple roles, such as the instructor, learning companion, and evaluator, to serve diverse educational needs; and that future development focuses in this area includes enhancing emotional interaction capabilities of agents, strengthening their integration with virtual reality and augmented reality, and transitioning from single-agent to multi-agent systems.