The other items have also gained good mean scores which
are 4.07 (Helpful Agent), 4.07 (Motivate Leaner), 4.2
(Animation and Gesture) and 4.17 (Text – To – Speech).
These mean scores are able to be support the facts that most
of the respondents were satisfied with the agents, which can
give positive impacts in learning (with the aid of adapted
agents within the multimedia application). Johnson and
Rickel (1998) affirmed that the ability of an agent is to have
enough understanding of the learning context and subject
matter so that they are able to perform useful roles in learning
scenarios.
Moreover, the APA are capable of explaining verbal
output where many of the respondents felt that listening to the
explanation can increase their understanding compared to
mere reading. The APA also offer hints during
question-answer session and at the same time allow users to
think critically to get the answer needed. Baylor and Kim
(2004) asserted that by manipulating an interface agent‟s
image, it can significantly enhance learner motivation with a
large effect. Furthermore, Moniri (2006) claimed that an
agent with rich repertoire of emotive behaviors to exhibit
contextually appropriate facial expression and expressive
gestures will allow the animated pedagogical agents to
exploit the visual channel to advise, encourage and motivate
students. As further suggested by Veletsianos (2007), the
agents‟ contextual relevance and aesthetic properties need to
be considered to fully utilise their potentials, as the
anthropomorphous features and social affordances of the
APA can elicit psychological responses from the learners that
other media cannot extract. To sum, the overall results from
the findings disclose that a multimedia application
supplemented with animated pedagogical agents can bring
useful transformations in the learning environment