Marcos, AdéritoCláudio, Ana PaulaMartinho, CarlosBarros, Daniela Melaré VieiraCarvalho, ElizabethCarmo, Maria BeatrizSeixas, Sónia2020-02-132020-02-132018Marcos, Adério; [et al]. - Virtual tutoring. Hands-on Science. Advancing Science. Improving Education. Costa MF, Dorrio BV, Fernandez-Novell JM (Eds.); Hands-on Science Network, 2018, p. 56-61. ISBN 978-84-8158-779-1978-84-8158-779-1http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/9271The project VIRTUAL TUTORING – the virtual tutor as learning mediating artifact in online university education, is an ongoing project, with the main goal of analyzing the pedagogic impact of an anthropomorphic user interface on a typical distance learning environment targeted to support online higher education. This demands the creation of animated avatars for virtual tutors, able to display intelligent behaviour while interacting with the students. A Virtual Tutor should be analogous to a real human one, being able to proactively understand, solve and intervene in different student learning situations. This paper gives an overview of the project present development status.engVirtual pedagogic modelsOnline distance learningVirtual tutorEmbodied conversational agentsbook part