Chatbots applications in education: A systematic review

E-learning and chatbots facilitate this process by offering a flexible and accessible means of acquiring new skills and knowledge. As technology evolves and industries change, individuals can adapt more readily, leading to increased employability and income potential. One of the primary ways in which e-learning and chatbot technology contribute to wealth creation is by enhancing skill development in STEM fields. The modern job market is increasingly reliant on individuals with advanced technical skills. As more students gain access to quality STEM education through e-learning, they are better equipped to pursue high-demand, high-paying STEM careers.

Reduced costs for students can lead to less debt upon graduation and a faster path to financial stability. Additionally, institutions can reduce overhead expenses by utilizing e-learning technologies, which can free up resources for research, development, and the expansion of STEM programs. When students have access to online resources and chatbots for immediate assistance, they can develop the skills and knowledge necessary to innovate and create their own solutions to real-world challenges. This, in turn, can lead to the development of new products, services, and technologies that can create jobs and drive economic growth.

Chatbot guides students to learn and reflect

Deliberate practice, such as role-playing, can help you develop these transfer skills. AI chatbots can help with developing scenarios, role-playing a situation, and providing feedback. For example, you might prompt the chatbot to create a realistic ethical dilemma that applies to the discipline or to role-play as a patient or client in a relevant scenario.

• This will enable them to provide even more personalized and context-aware support to students.
• Chatbots’ responses can vary in accuracy, and there is a risk of conveying incorrect or biased information.
• Lapina (2020) added that problem-based learning and solving complex problems could improve the need for cognition.
• While they can provide customized instruction, chatbots may not match human instructors’ emotional support and mentorship.

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. At the same time, they should also be told who is the teacher who has designed the chatbot and, most importantly, that the information they share with the chatbot will be seen by the teacher. Depending on the activity and the goals, I often design the bot to ask students for a code name instead of their real name (the chatbot refers to the person by that name at different points in the conversation). I’m also very clear, through what the bot says to the user and what I say when I first introduce the bot, about how the information that is shared will be used. Oftentimes reflections that students share with the bot are shared with the class without identifiable information, as a starting point for social learning.

Summary of existing literature reviews

Moreover, questions to ponder are the ethical implication of using EC, especially out of the learning scheduled time, and if such practices are welcomed, warranted, and accepted by today’s learner as a much-needed learning strategy. Therefore, future studies should look into educators’ challenges, needs, and competencies and align them in fulfill EC facilitated learning goals. Furthermore, there is much to be explored in understanding the complex dynamics of human–computer interaction in realizing such a goal, especially educational goals that are currently being influenced by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Conversely, future studies should look into different learning outcomes, social media use, personality, age, culture, context, and use behavior to understand the use of chatbots for education. 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.

• Large Language Models can produce incorrect yet plausible information confidently presented as factual.
• However, like most powerful technologies, the use of chatbots offers challenges and opportunities.
• Similarly, the chatbot in (Schouten et al., 2017) shows various reactionary emotions and motivates students with encouraging phrases such as “you have already achieved a lot today”.

The more context, details, and nuances you give the chatbot the more it has to work with to generate responses. For example, instead of asking “How do I write a course syllabus?”, you might instead say “I am a university instructor developing a new introductory course on genetics. Can you assist me in developing a useful and clear syllabus for first-year students? While many different chatbots and LLMs exist, we choose to highlight four prominent chatbots currently available for free. Each has some unique characteristics and nuanced differences in how developers built and trained them, though these differences are not significant for our purposes as educators. We encourage you to try accessing these chatbots as you explore their capabilities.

ChatGPT, as one of the latest AI-powered chatbots, has gained significant attention for its potential applications in education. Within just eight months of its launch in 2022, it has already amassed over 100 million users, setting new records for user and traffic growth. ChatGPT stands out among AI-powered chatbots used in education due to its advanced natural language processing capabilities and sophisticated language generation, enabling more natural and human-like conversations. It excels at capturing and retaining contextual information throughout interactions, leading to more coherent and contextually relevant conversations. Unlike some educational chatbots that follow predetermined paths or rely on predefined scripts, ChatGPT is capable of engaging in open-ended dialogue and adapting to various user inputs.

The truth is that they will take over the repetitive tasks and make a teacher’s work more meaningful. Students who attend the same class have different skills, interests, and abilities. Unfortunately, even some of the most expensive schools and colleges in the world are not able to provide this type of service. That is why chatbots are the most logical and affordable alternative for personal learning. Thirty years ago, when students wanted a break from study, they would listen to music on cassette players. Alternatively, they would use landline telephones and pagers to arrange dates.

Example educational use cases for chatbots

During distance learning exams, mitigating the risk of cheating by students becomes critically important and AI-powered proctoring solutions integrated with chat interfaces could be extremely useful. Offering feedback during eLearning courses enables fast-tracking of the learning process, facilitating a student-oriented approach. In terms of application, chatbots are primarily used in education to teach various subjects, including but not limited to mathematics, computer science, foreign languages, and engineering. While many chatbots follow predetermined conversational paths, some employ personalized learning approaches tailored to individual student needs, incorporating experiential and collaborative learning principles. 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. According to Kumar and Silva (2020), acceptance, facilities, and skills are still are a significant challenge to students and instructors.

Each student learns and absorbs things at a different pace and requires a specific methodology of teaching. Consequently, one of the most powerful advantages of getting educated by a chatbot is its flexibility and ability to adapt to specific needs and requirements of a particular student. Chatbots can be used in a wide spectrum, be it teaching people how to build websites, learn a new language, or something more generic like teach children Math. Chatbots are capable of adapting to the speed at which each student is comfortable – without being too pushy and overwhelming.

PARRY was a chatbot designed to simulate a paranoid patient with schizophrenia. It engaged in text-based conversations and demonstrated the ability to exhibit delusional behavior, offering insights into natural language processing and AI. 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 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. In 2011 Apple introduced Siri as a voice-activated personal assistant for its iPhone (Aron, 2011).

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