Method to Promote Social Facilitation of Learners by Presenting Writing Sounds

Abstract

We propose a method to induce the presence of other learners using writing sounds without interfering with self-guided study. For learners who are more likely to progress when they feel the presence of others, it can be difficult to continue independent self-guided study alone at home. In addition, in certain environments, e.g., libraries and learning commons, where other learners are present, the presence of others may positively influence the continuation of learning. Thus, the proposed system attempts to induce the presence of others according to the learner's level of concentration, which is evaluated by the learner’s leg movements. The proposed system was introduced experimentally to determine whether it can induce the presence of others in an environment with no other learners engaged in self-study activities.