The effects of educational interface agent usage in virtual science and technology museum on the interests and successes of students

The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of the usage of educational interface agent in virtual science and technology museum on students successes and interests towards Science. Quasi-experimental research design with pretest-posttest control group was applied. The independent variable of the research was usage of educational interface agent. The two dependent variables were students? successes and interests towards Science.The sample of the research consists of 67 6th grade students from Kırşehir Prof. Dr. Erol Güngör Elementary School in 2010-2011 spring semester. The students were randomly assigned to two different web based MTA Virtual Science and Technology Museum learning environments, one of which provided educational interface agent and the other did not. It took five weeks for the experimental process.According to the covariance analysis (ANCOVA) results, usage of educational interface agent in MTA Virtual Science and Technology Museum made a significant difference between the success scores of students. Students who studied with the virtual museum which provided educational interface agent were successful than the others [F(1-64)=4.429, p<.05]. On the other hand students? interests towards science did not significantly change due to the presence or non presence of educational interface agent in the virtual museum environment [F(1-64)=0.149, p>.05]. The range of the students? opinions about these two virtual museum environments were given as frequency (f) and percentage (%). Almost all of the students were found to be satisfied with the learning environments which they studied in. Moreover the students? satisfaction with the educational interface agent was found high in the group that studied in the virtual museum supported with educational interface agent. It can be inferred from the findings that %29.03 of the students mostly liked the mobility of the educational interface agent. In addition, %25.81 of the students mostly liked the way this agent helped and gave advices.Keywords: Virtual museum, virtual science and technology museum, educational interface agent