Introducing Canvas: Combining Nonverbal Behavior Generation with User-Generated Content to Rapidly Create Educational Videos

Abstract

Rapidly creating educational content that is effective, engaging, and low-cost is a challenge. We present Canvas, a tool for educators that addresses this challenge by enabling the generation of educational video, led by an intelligent virtual agent, that combines rapid nonverbal behavior generation techniques with end-user facing authoring tools. With Canvas, educators can easily produce compelling educational videos with a minimum of investment by leveraging existing content provided by the tool (e.g., characters and environments) while incorporating their own custom content (e.g., images and video clips). Canvas has been delivered to the Smithsonian Science Education Center and is currently being evaluated internally before wider release. We discuss the system, feature set, design process, and lessons learned.