Just press “teach”? A longitudinal study of human expectations and responses to a robot instructor

As social robots become increasingly present in educational contexts, understanding how students perceive robot instructors over time is critical. This study investigates how repeated interactions with a social robot teacher shape students’ perceptions of credibility, social presence, affect, and uncertainty over a 15-week university semester. Using a repeated post-test-only cohort design, 43 students participated in five instructional sessions delivered by a Pepper robot, each followed by survey measures assessing key perceptual variables. Analyses of two participant cohorts (n = 9 for full participation; n = 29 for partial participation) revealed that perceptions of the robot’s credibility, social presence, uncertainty, and affect toward the instructor remained largely stable across sessions, with only modest shifts in competence and intentions to take another class emerging over time. These findings suggest that initial impressions of a robot teacher may persist over time, indicating that novelty effects are limited once role expectations are established. The results contribute to the growing literature on human–machine communication by demonstrating that humanoid robot teachers can maintain consistent levels of perceived credibility and social engagement across a semester. Implications for instructional design, anthropomorphic expectancy bias, and the long-term integration of robots in educational environments are discussed.