In hybrid educational environments, the choice of technology can affect students’ interaction, inclusion, and learning. While videoconferencing programs such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams are used widely, they generally fall short of facilitating interaction before/after the class, limit remote students’ control over recipient selection, and tend to provide a low sense of perceived presence, among other limitations. Telepresence robots can take hybrid communication a step further by enabling navigation, providing autonomy, and allowing social interaction outside classroom. These robots, however, still require technical and design-related improvements to overcome their usability issues and be successfully implemented in schools and universities. The aim of this work is to explore the criteria that would make a telepresence robot more efficient in school settings. Thus, we explore what design and technical features of these robots can help or hinder interaction, inclusion, and participation of remote students in synchronous hybrid learning settings. Data were collected via interviews, observations, and video recordings of 221 participants during their interactions with or through different telepresence robots in both controlled lab settings and in-the-wild scenarios in Denmark, Italy, Cyprus, and Latvia. Our findings suggest that the design features of telepresence robots can impact students’ mediated communication, inclusion, and (dis)engagement in the classroom. Accordingly, we define a set of minimum requirements that a telepresence robot should meet to be able to be used as a tool to facilitate synchronous hybrid learning scenarios. These requirements are divided into five categories, namely audio/video communication, navigation, physical features, technical aspects, and costs. The results on robot affordances and specifications have implications for robot developers, as well as for educators and school administrators when selecting appropriate robots that address diverse student needs and purposes. The findings can also inform the development of training programs for educators on how to create learning activities that best suit hybrid contexts containing remote learners on telepresence robots.

Keywords: Hybrid educational environments, telepresence robot, mediated communication, inclusion, usability.