Although students need to self-monitor and manage their learning process for effective metacognition, it can be particularly challenging in solitary e-learning environments that rely on pre-recorded videos. Unlike interactive e-learning or physical classrooms, typical e-learning environments prevent students from interacting with their teachers and peers, thereby hindering metacognitive support. To address this challenge, we introduce GPTalk, a system designed to support students’ learning experiences by facilitating interactions with LLM-based virtual companions. Through interviews with students and teachers, we identified design recommendations and implemented them in GPTalk. A user study involving 32 high-school students demonstrated that, compared to a baseline system, GPTalk fostered richer metacognitive engagement and self-regulated learning processes during video-based study (e.g., more monitoring questions and in-situ reflections), while short-term content understanding accuracy remained comparable across conditions. Overall, our findings suggest that students’ interactions with a virtual teacher and peer can support key aspects of their metacognition and self-regulated e-learning processes.

Dance learning through online videos has gained popularity, but it presents challenges in providing comprehensive information and personalized feedback. This paper introduces DanceSculpt, a system that utilizes 3D human reconstruction and tracking technology to enhance the dance learning experience. DanceSculpt consists of a dancer viewer that reconstructs dancers in video into 3D avatars and a dance feedback tool that analyzes and compares the user’s performance with that of the reference dancer. We conducted a comparative study to investigate the effectiveness of DanceSculpt against conventional video-based learning. Participants’ dance performances were evaluated using a motion comparison algorithm that measured the temporal and spatial deviation between the users’ and reference dancers’ movements in terms of pose, trajectory, formation, and timing accuracy. Additionally, user experience was assessed through questionnaires and interviews, focusing on aspects such as effectiveness, usefulness, and satisfaction with the system. The results showed that participants using DanceSculpt achieved significant improvements in dance performance compared to those using conventional methods. Furthermore, the participants rated DanceSculpt highly in terms of effectiveness (avg. 4.27) and usefulness (avg. 4.17) for learning dance. The DanceSculpt system demonstrates the potential of leveraging 3D human reconstruction and tracking technology to provide a more informative and interactive dance learning experience. By offering detailed visual information, multiple viewpoints, and quantitative performance feedback, DanceSculpt addresses the limitations of traditional video-based learning and supports learners in effectively analyzing and improving their dance skills.