Our Online Training Preferences, or Why Clippy Bombed

A new study finds that students in online training courses want to be taught by electronic versions of themselves.

The study, by researchers from NC State and George Washington University, were interested in how student performance was affected by changes in the electronic tutorial “helpers” utilized in online training programs.

It turns out that students do much better, and are happier, when the electronic helpers are a lot like them. The researchers found that appearance was one key factor. For example, a black woman did better when the training helper’s avatar was a black woman, a white woman did better if the avatar was a white woman, etc.

I think this explains why Clippy (remember Clippy?) was such a failure – nobody looks like Clippy. It probably would have worked better if Microsoft had been marketing its products to anthropomorphic paper clips.

But the researchers found that communication style was also important. For example, some people like to have their work compared to others – “you scored in the top 95th percentile.” Other people prefer have their work compared only to their own track record – “you did much better this time.” The study found that students did much better in the online training program when the training helper’s communication style matched their own. A paper on the study is forthcoming from Computers in Human Behavior.

If online training programs do begin allowing students to customize the helping agents they deal with, I hope they don’t go too far. I’d hate to have an online tutor as snarky as I am.