Originally posted by pshui on October 14, 2019
Hello everyone,
my Analytical Publishing Project will focused on the development and integration of ai-powered chatbots in education. I have decided to present using a chatbot I built using chatteron! Please follow this link to my bot YesBot.
(URL: https://web.chatteron.io/?clientId=uo7sK3P4elC9H8KR-2pyJ)
Among the other chatbot building tools that I have found and tested (Edboto, Engati and Chatfuel) I have decided to go with Chatteron because it does not limit the platform to facebook messengers alone. Besides, Chatteron also provides detailed analytics reports for users and I think it would be a useful reference and tool for instructors.
This had been an interesting and fun learning experience as I experimented with different chatbot tools, designs and features for the project. I am looking forward to sharing the analytics later:) Hope you will enjoy it too!
The idea of using chatbots for education is very interesting! Not only can chatbots be great TAs for answering common questions, I think chatbots can also effectively present short lessons. As the original post mentions, it is also a great means to collect data and do some analytics.
I took a lesson on a MOOC from China where information is presented in the form of a “chat”, and I enjoyed the conversational style teaching chatbots can provide on a mobile platform. The text-bot displayed a sequence of messages to “teach”. The user controlled the pace by tapping their phone to show the next message. The bot checked student understanding by asking simple questions as well. The bot also personalized parts of the lesson. At certain points, the bot would ask “what would you like to learn more about?” and give a few choices. The user can then reply with their choice and the appropriate messages or lessons pop up. I ended up really enjoying the experience and found that by breaking information into shorter chunks, the “chat” helped keep me more focused and engaged.
The current AI chatbots are not perfect, as many of us have the frustrating experience of chatting with an online customer bot. They might sound impersonal and have limited capability in understanding possible human responses. However, with more development, I think it can become a powerful tool. Companies like Botsify has started working on chatbots for education. Check out their website for a few concept demos: https://botsify.com/chatbot-for-education