Challenging Gender Stereotypes using Virtual Pedagocical Characters

This paper explores motivational and cognitive effects of more neutral or androgynous-looking versus more feminine-looking and masculine-looking virtual characters. A user study is presented, in which 158 students, aged 17-19, encountered four virtual characters that were visually manipulated to represent gender stereotypicality versus androgyny. On the one hand we explored students’ attitudes towards the different characters as seen in how they ranked them as preferred presenters and articulated their arguments for doing so. On the other hand we looked for patterns as to which character(s) influenced female and male students most positively with respect to their attitude towards a university level computer engineering programme. Results from the study are presented and discussed. We conclude by pointing towards future research and potential within the area