2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Immersive technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have provided a promising shift in many areas, especially in education. Additionally, using Pedagogical Agents (PA) in education has improved student’s learning curve in many fields like computer science, math, engineering, and English, where it showed most effective during COVID-19.

Nowadays, a booming technique was introduced in many areas that provided a quick respond, almost accurate results in a fraction of the normal time at any field there is, which is Generative AI (GenAI). Particularly in education, this technique was used in many fields (e.g., English and STEM), where studies showed promising results. While testing the effects of using AI techniques on K-12 students, studies showed the significant impact of using these techniques on students' performance, behavior, and understanding of their courses. At the same time, some studies were concerned about teachers' acceptance level of using these techniques in their classes and the impact on their students.

The aim of this paper is to better understand the field of PA, and the advances that evolved after the GenAI revolution. To explore these advances, a comparison between the modern AI techniques and PA with immersive techniques will be provided to understand what has changed and what kind of improvements have been made. Therefore, this paper paves the way for researchers who are interested in education and technology to explore potential directions in the latest technologies in education. This paper also helps researchers and practitioners learn about the current approaches and technologies that connect GenAI and PAs in K-12 education.