Project Summary

Digital assistants are becoming commonplace in many industries and Universities are now exploring their use in different contexts. For example, Lancaster University and Staffordshire University are both now using chatbots to better support their students access information and support services (https://www.terminalfour.com/blog/posts/the-first-digital-assistants-have-landed-at-uk-universities-will-yours-be-next.html).

This project aims to introduce a chatbot service within the Biology 1A and 1B courses designed to help answer student’s questions about their assessments. FAQs from previous years of the course will be reviewed to initially populate the questions and answers. Novel questions asked of the chatbot will be automatically flagged to the course team for an answer. This answer will then add to the database of answers, making this an adaptive, growing resource for students.

This pilot will test the ability to include an accessible chatbot within the VLE as well as test ease of use and student perceptions to the technology.
Other elements like scalability and staff maintenance requirements will be recorded as part of this project to better understand how this may be used in other areas of the University.

We put a bid into the University Learning and Teaching Development Fund (LTDF)

"The Learning and Teaching Development Fund (LTDF) was established in 2000-01 to support developments in Learning and Teaching which are innovative, sustainable, transferable and contribute to the delivery of the objectives of the University's Learning and Teaching Strategy. Awards made through this scheme have greatly contributed to the enhancement of learning and teaching across the University."

and got this response;

"I am delighted to confirm that your project has been approved........Congratulations on being successful against an unusually high level of competition this year!"

Aims and Outcomes

This project will create an adaptive digital assistant, accessible across multiple platforms for first year biology students to use to help better question and understand their assessments. These students have access to FAQs and forum posts in their course VLE pages. Using a chatbot interface represents a different and potentially more accessible way for students to get the answers they need about their assessments.

The project will evaluate the usefulness, ease of use and accessibility of the chatbot resource. The outcome is hoped to be that the students feel better supported through their first year biology assessments and get answers to their questions in a quick and straightforward way.

a. Co-creating the curriculum in partnership with students
First year biology students, Biology 1A and 1B, will be involved in the creation and evaluation of the resource as they are best placed to reflect on their own experiences of assessments.

b. Active learning approaches
The resources generated for this chatbot will initially use the existing FAQs from the Biology courses but will grow and adapt as more students engage with the system. This will help staff identify common areas of confusion and allow for adaptation to teaching materials and resources. This adaptation and development work can be ‘live’ during the same academic session, where traditionally some of this work only gets identified at the end of teaching meetings and Student-Staff Liaison meetings.

c. Innovations in teaching and/or assessment practice
This resource is an excellent example of the use of technology to provide new and accessible ways for students to better question aspects of their learning experiences.

d. Internationalising the Curriculum
The first year life science undergraduate student population is large and diverse with students coming from a range of backgrounds. This resource will ensure that all students are on an even footing, regardless of background, going forwards through the course.

This pilot will work with approximately 700 first year Biology 1A/1B students in the first instance.

The intention throughout this project is to align directly with aspects of the Learning and Teaching Strategies and improve the student experience. For example: “enhance the quality of our learning and teaching”, and “make further improvements in the retention and the success of our students by making effective, evidence-based interventions and providing the appropriate infrastructure to support a broader range of student transitions into an integrated environment”.

This digital assistant aims to be an additional resource to better support assessment transition for our first year students. Transitions is a complex area and as our students and our experience is that assessments can be a particular difficulty. Especially the differences in assessments at Higher Education compared to school/college experiences (Kahu, 2018). More accessible support, using technology students are already engaging with on a day-to-day basis, aims to help our students better understand their course and assessment expectations.

Kahu, E., Nelson, K., 2018, Student engagement in the education interface: understanding the mechanisms of student success, Higher Education Research and Development, 37 (1).

Methodology

1. Student questions about assessments, and the exiting assessment FAQs for the course, will be used to create the initial set of questions and answers that the chatbot will automatically respond to.
2. Student volunteers from the first year Biology course will review these FAQs and add/adapt where appropriate. They will also identify areas where new questions and answers should be created.
3. The live system will be introduced to all first year biology students and it will be explained that this will be another way to ask questions and get appropriate answers about assessments.
4. The system will automatically flag any novel questions that require a new answer to be generated. This new answer will then be added to the questions the catboat will answer automatically.
5. Students will be asked about their experience with the chatbot. Evaluation will include testing usefulness, accessibility, and ease of use. This feedback will be collected through questionnaires and focus groups.

Timetable

August 2019 – Creation of initial question and answer database. Submit ethics application form.
September 2019 – recruit student volunteers to review question and answer database and suggest further development before system goes live.
October – December 2019 – Biology 1A assessment chatbot goes live for students to use and comment on.
December 2019 – student evaluation questionnaires and focus groups
January 2020 – implement any additional development identified in the first semester evaluation.
January – March 2020 – Biology 1B assessment chatbot goes live for students to use and comment on.
April 2020 – student evaluation questionnaires and focus groups.
April – May 2020 - implement any additional development identified in the second semester evaluation.
May 2020 – Evaluation and dissemination
July 2020 – Project complete

Suggestions are always welcome. Email