Back to school with telepresence robot technology: A qualitative pilot study about how telepresence robots help school-aged children and adolescents with cancer to remain socially and academically connected with their school classes during treatment.

Five themes emerged: expectations, sociality, learning, spatiality and technology. Participants experienced the robots as facilitating social interaction processes with classmates and inclusion in learning activities, reducing their sense of loneliness and lacking behind educationally. Nevertheless, multiple factors determine whether the robot is perceived as exclusive, including the technical functionality of the robot, spatiality in the classroom and mutual expectations of the parties involved.