How is the use of AI perceived in a classroom environment?

performance, detecting undesirable student behaviour, or providing feedback for supporting instructors and students, are becoming more common (Baker et al., 2009). This work is part of the evaluation proposal for the experimentation of the ClassMate Robot (CMR) project, promoted by the Protom Group (with Protom Robotics and Scuolab srl), in four Italian schools (junior high and high school level). The project includes the collaboration with the Projects of Intelligent Robotics and Advanced Cognitive System (PRISCA) Lab of the University of Naples Federico II for the development of the software infrastructure and the scientific support of the Department of Social Sciences (DiSS) of the same university. The idea behind CMR is to use AI, by introducing a social robot archetype, to bring upon the Italian school framework innovative teaching and learning processes. The experimentation consists in testing how a newly developed AI device for social education is received in a classroom environment. A post- experimental investigation was carried out to evaluate the performance of the CMR. The work aims to develop an easy evaluation tool for the CMR that decision-makers can adopt. The work first implements an initial exploratory study of survey data and then investigates different dimensions that affect the students' evaluation analyzing how these dimensions impact this evaluation. The dimensions concern aspects relating to students’ general perception of the CMR, their comfort level using the CMR, their perception of the CMR’s impact on school results, and perception of platform likability. Structural equation modeling, and in particular Partial least squares - path modeling (PLS-PM), is used to examine the relationships between these dimensions. According to PLS-PM, student satisfaction may be defined as a multidimensional latent variable (LV) related to its manifest variables (MVs) and linked to other LVs, that represent the variables dimensions. The goal is to determine which aspects of this product need to be altered to boost student satisfaction.