@inproceedings{otofa-etal-2026-mixed,
title = "Mixed-Initiative Dialogue Management for Human-Virtual Agents Interaction in Forum Theatre Inspired Training",
author = "Otofa, Samuel and
Zerenini, Yacine and
Bechet, Frederic and
Favre, Benoit and
Pergandi, Jean-Marie and
Ochs, Magalie",
editor = "Riccardi, Giuseppe and
Mousavi, Seyed Mahed and
Torres, Maria Ines and
Yoshino, Koichiro and
Callejas, Zoraida and
Chowdhury, Shammur Absar and
Chen, Yun-Nung and
Bechet, Frederic and
Gustafson, Joakim and
Damnati, G{\'e}raldine and
Papangelis, Alex and
D{'}Haro, Luis Fernando and
Mendon{\c{c}}a, John and
Bernardi, Raffaella and
Hakkani-Tur, Dilek and
Di Fabbrizio, Giuseppe {''}Pino{''} and
Kawahara, Tatsuya and
Alam, Firoj and
Tur, Gokhan and
Johnston, Michael",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 16th International Workshop on Spoken Dialogue System Technology",
month = feb,
year = "2026",
address = "Trento, Italy",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.iwsds-1.11/",
pages = "109--113",
abstract = "This work presents a virtual reality ({VR}) training tool designed to raise awareness of social discrimination (ethnic and gender-based) and to train individuals to respond effectively when witnessing such situations. Inspired by Augusto Boal{'}s forum theatre, the system recreates interactive scenarios of discrimination using autonomous virtual agents. The user first observes a discriminatory scene, then analyzes it through an interaction with a virtual conversational agent, and finally replays the scene by embodying the discriminated character to explore alternative reactions. From a dialogue system perspective, the project introduces a hybrid dialogue management architecture combining state-based control with Large Language Model ({LLM})-driven open dialogue. This mixed-initiative approach allows the system to manage structured training sequences while supporting flexible, context-aware interactions on sensitive topics. The demonstrator illustrates this approach through a case of ordinary sexism in a professional setting, highlighting the potential of spoken dialogue systems in {VR} for experiential learning and social behavior training."
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<abstract>This work presents a virtual reality (VR) training tool designed to raise awareness of social discrimination (ethnic and gender-based) and to train individuals to respond effectively when witnessing such situations. Inspired by Augusto Boal’s forum theatre, the system recreates interactive scenarios of discrimination using autonomous virtual agents. The user first observes a discriminatory scene, then analyzes it through an interaction with a virtual conversational agent, and finally replays the scene by embodying the discriminated character to explore alternative reactions. From a dialogue system perspective, the project introduces a hybrid dialogue management architecture combining state-based control with Large Language Model (LLM)-driven open dialogue. This mixed-initiative approach allows the system to manage structured training sequences while supporting flexible, context-aware interactions on sensitive topics. The demonstrator illustrates this approach through a case of ordinary sexism in a professional setting, highlighting the potential of spoken dialogue systems in VR for experiential learning and social behavior training.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Mixed-Initiative Dialogue Management for Human-Virtual Agents Interaction in Forum Theatre Inspired Training
%A Otofa, Samuel
%A Zerenini, Yacine
%A Bechet, Frederic
%A Favre, Benoit
%A Pergandi, Jean-Marie
%A Ochs, Magalie
%Y Riccardi, Giuseppe
%Y Mousavi, Seyed Mahed
%Y Torres, Maria Ines
%Y Yoshino, Koichiro
%Y Callejas, Zoraida
%Y Chowdhury, Shammur Absar
%Y Chen, Yun-Nung
%Y Bechet, Frederic
%Y Gustafson, Joakim
%Y Damnati, Géraldine
%Y Papangelis, Alex
%Y D’Haro, Luis Fernando
%Y Mendonça, John
%Y Bernardi, Raffaella
%Y Hakkani-Tur, Dilek
%Y Di Fabbrizio, Giuseppe ”Pino”
%Y Kawahara, Tatsuya
%Y Alam, Firoj
%Y Tur, Gokhan
%Y Johnston, Michael
%S Proceedings of the 16th International Workshop on Spoken Dialogue System Technology
%D 2026
%8 February
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Trento, Italy
%F otofa-etal-2026-mixed
%X This work presents a virtual reality (VR) training tool designed to raise awareness of social discrimination (ethnic and gender-based) and to train individuals to respond effectively when witnessing such situations. Inspired by Augusto Boal’s forum theatre, the system recreates interactive scenarios of discrimination using autonomous virtual agents. The user first observes a discriminatory scene, then analyzes it through an interaction with a virtual conversational agent, and finally replays the scene by embodying the discriminated character to explore alternative reactions. From a dialogue system perspective, the project introduces a hybrid dialogue management architecture combining state-based control with Large Language Model (LLM)-driven open dialogue. This mixed-initiative approach allows the system to manage structured training sequences while supporting flexible, context-aware interactions on sensitive topics. The demonstrator illustrates this approach through a case of ordinary sexism in a professional setting, highlighting the potential of spoken dialogue systems in VR for experiential learning and social behavior training.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.iwsds-1.11/
%P 109-113
Markdown (Informal)
[Mixed-Initiative Dialogue Management for Human-Virtual Agents Interaction in Forum Theatre Inspired Training](https://aclanthology.org/2026.iwsds-1.11/) (Otofa et al., IWSDS 2026)
ACL