How Universities Can Use AI Chatbots to Connect with Students and Drive Success

SUNY Downstate Researchers Find AI Chatbots Can Simplify Pathology Reports and Increase Patient Comprehension

benefits of chatbots in education

Chatbots for education work collaboratively with teachers, optimizing the online learning process and creating an enriched educational ecosystem. In our study, the term ‘perceptions’ is defined, following Chuah and Kabilan’s approach (2021), as users’ attitudes and opinions towards their interactions with chatbots in education. This encompasses aspects such as perceived usefulness, acceptance, and potential interest. Research in this area underscores the importance of understanding users’ viewpoints on chatbots, including their acceptance of these tools in educational settings and their preferences for chatbot-human communication.

In our study, the primary focus was on evaluating language teacher candidates’ perceptions of AICs in language learning, rather than assessing language learning outcomes. Considering that the majority of participants possessed an upper intermediate (B2-C1) or advanced (C2) proficiency level, the distinction between native and non-native speakers was not deemed a crucial factor for this research. Subsequently, a statistical analysis was conducted to evaluate the impact of language nativeness (Spanish and Czech versus non-Spanish and non-Czech speakers), revealing no significant differences in the study’s outcomes. Furthermore, the evaluations of the AICs by both Spanish and Czech cohorts displayed similar results. This analysis led us to conclude that language nativeness and the specific educational settings of the participants were not key factors influencing the results of our study.

The aim was not to compare the four AICs, but rather to present teacher candidates with a broad overview of these virtual tutors, providing a variety of options and examples. A chatbot, short for chatterbot, is a computer program that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct a conversation via auditory or textual methods and interacts with humans in their natural languages. These interactions usually occur through websites, messaging applications, or mobile apps, where the bot is capable of simulating and maintaining human-like conversations and perform different tasks (Adamopoulou & Moussiades, 2020). None of the articles explicitly relied on usability heuristics and guidelines in designing the chatbots, though some authors stressed a few usability principles such as consistency and subjective satisfaction. Further, none of the articles discussed or assessed a distinct personality of the chatbots though research shows that chatbot personality affects users’ subjective satisfaction. Concerning the design principles behind the chatbots, slightly less than a third of the chatbots used personalized learning, which tailored the educational content based on learning weaknesses, style, and needs.

(PDF) Chatbot Prompting: A guide for students, educators, and an AI-augmented workforce – ResearchGate

(PDF) Chatbot Prompting: A guide for students, educators, and an AI-augmented workforce.

Posted: Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Thirdly, the present study’s results offer crucial insights into key features that users find valuable in an AI chatbot within an educational context. The demonstrated significance of self-learning capabilities, personalization, and novelty value indicates distinct areas that developers can focus on to amplify user experience and educational outcomes. Understanding the paramount importance of self-learning capabilities can shape the development strategies of AI chatbots. For instance, developers can focus on improving the ability of AI chatbots like ChatGPT to learn from user interactions, thereby enhancing the quality of responses over time. It would require advanced machine learning algorithms to grasp the context of user inquiries accurately, ensuring a consistent learning experience for the users.

According to an App Annie report, users spent 120 billion dollars on application stores Footnote 8. Concerning their interaction style, the conversation with chatbots can be chatbot or user-driven (Følstad et al., 2018). Chatbot-driven conversations are scripted and best represented as linear flows with a limited number of branches that rely upon acceptable user answers (Budiu, 2018). When the user provides answers compatible with the flow, the interaction feels smooth.

We raise our funds each year primarily from individuals and foundations. Users must use chatbots in a manner that respects the rights and dignity of others. They should not be used for malicious purposes, harassment, hate speech, or any activity that violates applicable laws or regulations.

Click the banner below for exclusive content about software in higher education. Much of the early panic over ChatGPT has subsided as instructors have realized the limitations of the AI, tools have been developed to detect its use and thought leaders have encouraged colleges to embrace tools like ChatGPT. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Artificial intelligence has been a blazingly hot topic in higher education since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, stoking early fears that comprehensive, AI-written essays would “blow up” the entire education system. Seven general research questions were formulated in reference to the objectives. The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

What if the devil is my guardian angel: ChatGPT as a case study of using chatbots in education

Further, we only analyzed the most recent articles when many articles discussed the same concept by the same researchers. This limitation was necessary to allow us to practically begin the analysis of articles, which took several months. We potentially missed other interesting articles that could be valuable for this study at the date of submission. While using questionnaires as an evaluation method, the studies identified high subjective satisfaction, usefulness, and perceived usability.

Prior research has not mentioned creativity as a learning outcome in EC studies. However, according to Pan et al. (2020), there is a positive relationship between creativity and the need for cognition as it also reflects individual innovation behavior. Likewise, it was deemed necessary due to the nature of the project, which involves design.

Although chatbot technology is novel, PEU may increase over time as the public becomes more accustomed to using the technology. It is expected that as these models become more widely available for commercial use, research on the benefits of their use will also increase. Because chatbots using LLMs have vastly more capabilities than their traditional counterparts, it is expected that there are additional benefits not currently identified in the literature.

benefits of chatbots in education

Secondly, by demonstrating empirically that innovativeness positively affects both behavioral intention and behavior, this research underscores the dynamic role of this personal trait in driving technology usage. Furthermore, the study broadens the theoretical construct of innovativeness by applying it to the unique interactional dynamics of AI chatbots, thereby highlighting the relevance of individual traits in using emerging technologies. Lastly, integrating innovativeness into the research model sets a precedent for future studies to include other personal traits or user characteristics that may influence technology usage behavior. This approach promises a more holistic, user-centric understanding of technology adoption and use.

Due to this novel ability, ChatGPT garnered more than 120 million users within the first two months of release, becoming the fastest-growing software application of all time (Milmo, 2023). Chatbots can collect and analyze data from user interactions, providing valuable insights that can be used to improve course offerings, marketing strategies, and user experiences. Chatbots can provide personalized recommendations and support based on individual user preferences, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Purpose of the study

CMB refers to the spurious effect that can occur when both predictor and criterion variables are collected from the same source at the same time. It can potentially inflate or deflate the observed relationships between the constructs, leading to biased results. Thus, addressing the issue of CMB is critical to ensuring the validity of the study’s findings. In this study, we took several procedural and statistical steps to address the potential issue of CMB. Procedurally, we ensured the anonymity of the respondents and the confidentiality of their responses. We also used clear and simple language in the survey to minimize any ambiguity in the questions.

Chatbots can easily scale to handle increased demand, managing thousands of conversations without compromising support quality. This can help online schools accommodate rapid growth or seasonal fluctuations in user inquiries. To suggest a perfect course, they qualify a potential student, learning about their academic course and experience. Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly

interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the

most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

benefits of chatbots in education

The model, which comprises three dimensions (LEX, DEX, UEX), has allowed for a comprehensive assessment of the AICs across multiple facets. This suggests that while these tools have made strides in providing language-related features, there is still room for improvement, particularly in terms of maintaining contextually relevant dialogues and varying sentence complexity based on the learner’s level. Qualitative data Chat GPT were collected through class discussions and assessment reports of the AICS following a template provided through the Moodle platform. During the 1-month intervention period in each educational setting, participants independently completed the assessment reports. They were instructed to provide personal feedback on their interaction with each AIC, using the template to note both positive and negative aspects.

This relative advantage often takes the form of novelty value, especially in the early stages of an innovation’s diffusion process. In this context, ChatGPT, with its self-learning capability, personalization, and interactive conversation style, can be seen as a novel approach to traditional learning methods. This novelty can make the learning process more engaging, exciting, and effective, thereby increasing the perceived benefits for students. Facilitating conditions refer to the degree to which an individual believes that there will be technological support from their system or organization (Chan et al., 2010).

While many of these transformations are exciting, like self-driving cars, virtual assistants, or wearable devices in the healthcare industry, they also pose many challenges. Machines with limited memory possess a limited understanding of past events. They can interact more with the world around them than reactive machines can. For example, self-driving cars use a form of limited memory to make turns, observe approaching vehicles, and adjust their speed.

Chatbots can handle multiple customer inquiries simultaneously, reducing the need for a large customer support team. According to a study by Invesp, businesses can save up to 30% in customer support costs by using chatbots. According to a study by MarketsandMarkets, the global chatbot market is expected to reach $10.5 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 23.5% from 2021 to 2026. This growth can be attributed to the increasing adoption of chatbots in various applications, including education. For example, Georgia Tech has created an adaptive learning platform for its computer science master’s program. This platform uses AI to personalize the learning experience for each student.

Later in 2001 ActiveBuddy, Inc. developed the chatbot SmarterChild that operated on instant messaging platforms such as AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger (Hoffer et al., 2001). SmarterChild was benefits of chatbots in education a chatbot that could carry on conversations with users about a variety of topics. It was also able to learn from its interactions with users, which made it more and more sophisticated over time.

The analysis of descriptive statistics was conducted using the pivot table feature in Excel. So I jumped at the chance to learn more about how teachers there are planning to use chatbots with their students this academic year. You can read more in my story today about how school districts across the country are repealing their ChatGPT bans. If you are interested in looking at what a chatbot can do, try chatGPT.

You can use the number of collected leads, the retention rate of customers, or the number of independently solved customer queries. You should decide which channels you want to implement your chatbot onto. You can implement Facebook Messenger bots onto your social media page, so your clients can easily find the chat. You can also choose a solution that lets you implement a chatbot on many platforms, such as your social media, WhatsApp, and your website. When you know what you need from the chatbot, then it’s time to choose the tool that will help you solve the problems. This will provide you with an idea of which chatbots you should implement and how to measure their results.

Since it can access live data on the web, it can be used to personalize marketing materials and sales outreach. It also has a growing automation and workflow platform that makes creating new marketing and sales collateral easier when needed. It seems more advanced than Microsoft Bing’s citation capabilities and is far better than what ChatGPT can do. It also offers practical tools to combat hallucinations and false facts. The “Double-Check Response” button will scan any output and compare its response to Google search results.

Lastly, it would be insightful to conduct longitudinal studies to understand the long-term effects of AI chatbot usage on student performance and attitudes towards AI technologies. This approach could reveal trends and impacts that may not be immediately apparent in cross-sectional studies. Educational institutions that use chatbots can support students, parents, and teachers and provide them with a superior learning experience. Chatbots are used across many areas — from helping make the application process smoother to providing personalized tuition and collecting data and feedback to improve services, teaching practices, and student learning experiences. The latest chatbot models have showcased remarkable capabilities in natural language processing and generation. Additional research is required to investigate the role and potential of these newer chatbots in the field of education.

Understanding student sentiments during and after the sessions is very important for teachers. If students end up being confused and unclear about the topic, all the efforts made by the teachers go in vain. Automation is essential for all the administrative procedures in schools. Admitting hundreds of students with varied fee structures, course details, and specializations can be a task for administrators.

Frequency in the table refers to the number of observations made in the sample of textual data based on the written assessments provided by participants. The research was carried out following the regulations set by each institution for interventions with human subjects, as approved by their respective Ethical Committees. Participants provided written consent for the publication of their interactions with chatbots for academic purposes. Pelletier also says these chatbots appear to have a disproportionate benefit to first-generation students and those from minority backgrounds, since those students are sometimes uncomfortable asking what they might fear are “stupid questions” of an actual human. Some studies mentioned limitations such as inadequate or insufficient dataset training, lack of user-centered design, students losing interest in the chatbot over time, and some distractions.

Okonkwo and Ade-Ibijola (2021) analyzed the main benefits and challenges of implementing chatbots in an educational setting. Incorporating AI chatbots in education offers several key advantages from students’ perspectives. AI-powered chatbots provide valuable homework and study assistance by offering detailed feedback on assignments, guiding students through complex problems, and providing step-by-step solutions. They also act as study companions, offering explanations and clarifications on various subjects. They can be used for self-quizzing to reinforce knowledge and prepare for exams. Furthermore, these chatbots facilitate flexible personalized learning, tailoring their teaching strategies to suit each student’s unique needs.

Data Availability Statement

We have extensive information on chatbot-related topics, such as how to automate contact information collection and how to maximize customer service potential. By answering prospective students’ queries on courses, admissions, and the application process, chatbots simplify and speed up the enrolment process. The versatility of chatbots allows for a range of applications in educational services. Adeel Akram, Senior Account Executive for respond.io, highlights the prominent use cases he encountered in the education field.

benefits of chatbots in education

Like all of us, teachers are bound by time and space — but can educational technology offer new ways to make a teacher’s presence and knowledge available to learners? Stanford d.school’s Leticia Britos Cavagnaro is pioneering efforts to extend interactive resources beyond the classroom. She recently has developed the “d.bot,” which takes a software feature that many of us know through our experiences as customers — the chatbot — and deploys it instead as a tool for teaching and learning. Jenny Robinson, a member of the Stanford Digital Education team, discussed with Britos Cavagnaro what led to her innovation, how it’s working and what she sees as its future. Nevertheless, Hobert (2019) claims that the main issue with EC assessment is the narrow view used to evaluate outcomes based on specific fields rather than a multidisciplinary approach.

Challenges in chatbot development include insufficient training datasets, a lack of emphasis on usability heuristics, ethical concerns, evaluation methods, user attitudes, programming complexities, and data integration issues. The survey results show that AI high performers—that is, organizations where respondents say at least 20 percent of EBIT in 2022 was attributable to AI use—are going all in on artificial intelligence, both with gen AI and more traditional AI capabilities. These organizations that achieve significant value from AI are already using gen AI in more business functions than other organizations do, especially in product and service development and risk and supply chain management. These organizations also are using AI more often than other organizations in risk modeling and for uses within HR such as performance management and organization design and workforce deployment optimization.

Chatbots in education offer unparalleled accessibility, functioning as reliable virtual assistants that remain accessible around the clock. Much like a dedicated support system, they tirelessly cater to the needs of both students and teachers, providing prompt responses and assistance at any time, day or night. This kind of availability ensures that learners and educators can access essential information and support whenever they need it, fostering a seamless and uninterrupted learning experience.

The values for both CR and CA should exceed the threshold of 0.7, indicating acceptable reliability. In our study, all constructs exceeded this threshold, demonstrating good reliability. Convergent Validity is the extent to which a measure correlates positively with alternate measures of the same construct. It was assessed using the average variance extracted (AVE) and the factor loadings of the indicators.

benefits of chatbots in education

In the past year, organizations using AI most often hired data engineers, machine learning engineers, and Al data scientists—all roles that respondents commonly reported hiring in the previous survey. But a much smaller share of respondents report hiring AI-related-software engineers—the most-hired role last year—than in the previous survey (28 percent in the latest survey, down from 39 percent). Roles in prompt engineering have recently emerged, as the need for that skill set rises alongside gen AI adoption, with 7 percent of respondents whose organizations have adopted AI reporting those hires in the past year. While AI high performers are not immune to the challenges of capturing value from AI, the results suggest that the difficulties they face reflect their relative AI maturity, while others struggle with the more foundational, strategic elements of AI adoption.

By analyzing conversation data, educational institutions can gain insights into user preferences, pain points, and popular inquiries, informing decision-making and strategy. For education services looking to expand their reach and enrollments, chatbots are effective lead generators. By handling inquiries and routing promising leads to human reps, chatbots streamline the admissions process and boost conversion rates. Understanding why chatbots are critical in an educational context is the first step in realizing their value proposition. If you’re totally star-struck 🤩 with our list of chatbot benefits, let us show how chatbots can boost YOUR business revenue and customer experience. Chatbots helps identify and address potential issues before they escalate, leading to increased student retention.

Guilt is typically experienced when individuals perceive that they have violated a moral standard. In the case of using AI technologies for learning, some students might perceive this as a form of ‘cheating’ or unfair advantage, thus leading to feelings of guilt. Uses of chatbots for education are likely to grow and become increasingly sophisticated as the technology advances and expands.

The study reported positive user feedback on the chatbot’s ease of use, usefulness, and enjoyment, as measured by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Similarly, Yang (2022) underscored the favourable views of AICs in English language education, with teachers valuing the chatbot’s capacity to manage routine tasks, thereby allowing them to concentrate on more substantial classroom duties. In this study, students appreciated the supplemental use of chatbots for their ability to provide immediate feedback on unfamiliar words or concepts, thereby enriching their English textbook learning. The first one delves into the effects of AICs on language competence and skills. These studies showed how AICs can manage personal queries, correct language mistakes, and offer linguistic support in real-time. Only one study pointed to high usefulness and subjective satisfaction (Lee et al., 2020), while the others reported low to moderate subjective satisfaction (Table 13).

Respondents at AI high performers most often point to models and tools, such as monitoring model performance in production and retraining models as needed over time, as their top challenge. By comparison, other respondents cite strategy issues, such as setting a clearly defined AI vision that is linked with business value or finding sufficient resources. They want empathy, but instead, get cold responses that follow a specific path. The bot can’t improvise or match emotions and therefore, lacks a human touch.

For example, if a specific landing page is underperforming, your chatbot can reach out to visitors with a survey. This way, you know why your potential customers are leaving and can even provide special offers to increase conversions. You can even use https://chat.openai.com/ the data collected by bots in your email marketing campaigns and personalize future customer interactions. They can also fill in the gap between the customer showing interest in your products and the sales representative joining the conversation.

  • Talking about customers in specific, they look for simple business interactions.
  • A thorough, systematic understanding of these determinants, both facilitative and inhibitive, is essential for the more effective deployment and acceptance of such a tool in educational settings, thereby contributing to its ultimate success and efficacy.
  • Automation is essential for all the administrative procedures in schools.
  • Also known as Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), weak AI is essentially the kind of AI we use daily.
  • PARRY was a chatbot designed to simulate a paranoid patient with schizophrenia.

I borrowed the term “proudly artificial” from Lauren Kunze, the CEO of the chatbot platform Pandorabots. It would be unethical to use a chatbot to interact with students under false pretenses. It is very important that they understand from the beginning that they are not chatting with a human.

They have multiple benefits, and that’s precisely what we are going to explain to you in this article today. I sat in on a ChatGPT workshop this month for teachers at Walla Walla High School, about 270 miles southeast of Seattle. As a reporter who covers education technology, I have closely followed how generative artificial intelligence has upended education.

AI chatbots provide time-saving assistance by handling routine administrative tasks such as scheduling, grading, and providing information to students, allowing educators to focus more on instructional planning and student engagement. Educators can improve their pedagogy by leveraging AI chatbots to augment their instruction and offer personalized support to students. By customizing educational content and generating prompts for open-ended questions aligned with specific learning objectives, teachers can cater to individual student needs and enhance the learning experience. Additionally, educators can use AI chatbots to create tailored learning materials and activities to accommodate students’ unique interests and learning styles.

For instance, the chatbot presented in (Lee et al., 2020) aims to increase learning effectiveness by allowing students to ask questions related to the course materials. It turned out that most of the participants agreed that the chatbot is a valuable educational tool that facilitates real-time problem solving and provides a quick recap on course material. The study mentioned in (Mendez et al., 2020) conducted two focus groups to evaluate the efficacy of chatbot used for academic advising.

We’ve written a detailed Jasper Review article for those looking into the platform, not just its chatbot. One of the chatbots’ advantages is that they can add a personal touch to communication. They chat with clients naturally and offer an interactive one-on-one experience. They can also provide personalized product and service recommendations based on the visitor’s responses.

The idea is the chatbot matches what the user says with a premade response. User-driven conversations are powered by AI and thus allow for a flexible dialogue as the user chooses the types of questions they ask and thus can deviate from the chatbot’s script. One-way user-driven chatbots use machine learning to understand what the user is saying (Dutta, 2017), and the responses are selected from a set of premade answers. In contrast, two-way user-driven chatbots build accurate answers word by word to users (Winkler & Söllner, 2018). Such chatbots can learn from previous user input in similar contexts (De Angeli & Brahnam, 2008).

The study investigated the effect of the technologies used on performance and quality of chatbots. LL provided a concise overview of the existing literature and formulated the methodology. All three authors collaborated on the selection of the final paper collection and contributed to crafting the conclusion. Each character has their own unique personality, memories, interests, and way of talking. There’s also a Fitness & Meditation Coach who is well-liked for health tips.

It has been scientifically proven that not everyone understands and learns in the same way. To cater to the needs of every student in terms of complex topics or subjects, chatbots can customize the learning plan and make sure that students gain maximum knowledge – in the classroom and even outside. Chatbots deployed through MIM applications are simplistic bots known as messenger bots (Schmulian & Coetzee, 2019).

In turn, you will take better care of the clients and improve their opinion of your brand. Over 87% of customers report that chatbots are effective in resolving their issues. This is one of the advantages of chatbots in AI customer service—They can significantly reduce the requests going to your human representatives. For example, let’s say you’re hiring for a position of a customer service representative. Chatbots can answer most of the candidates’ questions related to the recruitment process and your expectations. This way, your HR department can focus on the other tasks related to recruitment.