In the years to come social robots will be extensively used in the teaching field. Consequently, it is important to determine how these robots can optimally interact with students. This paper specifically looks at the performance of social robots in place of university professors, in the field of engineering, measuring three outcomes, enjoyment (questionnaire), the acquisition of knowledge (academic test after class and final exam grades) and level of surprise (facial expressions monitored by cameras). Inspired by previous cognitive studies which have evidenced that feelings of surprise and familiarity affect the learning process, the hypothesis of this research is that robot-tutors will increase student's enjoyment. Leading the research to question whether higher levels of enjoyment strongly correlate with a higher acquisition of knowledge through a series of three experiments. Using the same subject material, three variables were tested: 1. one robot-tutor lecture, 2. one human-tutor lecture, 3. two robot-tutor lectures. Initial findings showed that students lectured by a human-tutor once, acquired a higher level of knowledge compared to those lectured by a robot-tutor once. However, those in the robot-tutor lecture shared higher levels of enjoyment as well as increased expressions of surprise. When students were lectured by a robot-tutor for the second time, results showed both a higher level of acquired knowledge and enjoyment and a drop in expressed surprise, compared to both, one human-tutor lecture and one robot-tutor lecture or one robot-tutor lecture. We conclude that high levels of surprise distracted students initially but once overcome, acted as motivation to study.

未来几年，社交机器人将广泛应用于教学领域。因此，确定这些机器人如何与学生进行最佳互动非常重要。本文专门考察了社交机器人代替大学教授的表现，在工程领域，衡量三个结果，享受（问卷）、知识的获取（课后学术测试和期末考试成绩）和惊喜程度（由摄像头监控的面部表情）。受先前认知研究的启发，这些研究证明惊奇和熟悉的感觉会影响学习过程，本研究的假设是机器人导师会增加学生的乐趣。通过一系列三个实验，引导研究质疑更高水平的享受是否与更高的知识获取密切相关。使用相同的主题材料，测试了三个变量：1. 一次机器人导师讲座，2. 一次人工导师讲座，3. 两次机器人导师讲座。初步研究结果表明，与由机器人导师授课的学生相比，由人类导师授课一次的学生获得了更高水平的知识。然而，机器人导师讲座的参与者分享了更高水平的享受以及更多的惊喜表达。当学生第二次接受机器人导师授课时，结果表明，与一次人类导师授课和一次机器人导师授课或一个机器人相比，获得的知识和乐趣水平更高，表达的惊讶减少——导师讲座。