Chatbot Chatbot for education

The education sector isn't necessarily the first that springs to mind when you think of businesses that readily engage with technology. However, the use of technology in education became a lifeline during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, education is present in the top five business sectors that not only use but make profits with chatbots but also use advanced AI tools such as ChatGPT to process and generate information quickly, save time, and increase efficiency for both teachers and students.

Educational institutions that use chatbots can support students, parents, and teachers and provide them with a superior learning experience. The impact of chatbot on education by using technologies such as ChatGPT, is that institutions can leverage advanced natural language processing capabilities to create chatbots that can converse with students, answer their questions, and even offer personalized guidance and support. 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. 

This article will consider the benefits of chatbots for education as we examine all applications for which institutions could use education bots and discuss how chatbots could become indispensable in the education sector in the future.

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The personalization of chatbots for education

Our education systems weren’t designed for students in the internet age. Zoomers grow up on smartphones and tablets, so technology is integral to all aspects of learning, from creating and delivering course materials to how these materials are absorbed and memorized. 

Students now have access to all types of information at the click of a button; they demand answers instantly, anytime, anywhere. Technology has also opened the gateway for more collaborative learning and changed the role of the teacher from the person who holds all the knowledge to someone who directs and guides instead. 

Despite these changes, one thing that remains a constant is that students learn at different paces and have different needs and abilities. Teachers in busy classrooms cannot always provide students with the 1:1 care and attention they need. Personal tuition is a good solution, though not always an option. However, chatbots can provide an affordable alternative to this. 

Advancements in AI, NLP, and machine learning have empowered chatbots with the ability to engage in dialogue with students. In doing so, they have identified gaps in learning and understanding and can automatically provide relevant, helpful information, suggest alternative strategies, answer questions and supply additional knowledge to help get them back on track.

Chatbot for education system

A study (Pérez et al., 2020) identifies two application clusters defined through chatbot activities: "service-oriented chatbots" and "teaching-oriented chatbots.”

Some use cases of educational chatbots include:

Examples of chatbots in education

In this section, we dive into some real-life scenarios of where chatbots can help out in education.

1. Course inquiries

Whether a parent or student wants to know more about scholarship opportunities or discover further information about a university course, a chatbot can seamlessly handle the query and direct them to the correct information with ease. You can even build in lead capture sequences into the sequence.

2. Registration assistants

If you want to encourage students to sign up for a webinar, an art class, or a class trip, this can all be automated through your chatbot. Chatbots can be deployed in this way to help significantly reduce admin time and costs and the need for human-to-human interaction.

3. Student feedback

Student feedback can be invaluable for improving course materials, facilities, and students' learning experience as a whole. Educational institutions rely on having reputations of excellence, which incorporates a combination of both impressive results and good student satisfaction. Chatbots can collect student feedback and other helpful data, which can be analyzed and used to inform plans for improvement.

4. Student support

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a considerable shift in the way education is being delivered. Global e-learning is expanding at lightning speed and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.1% by 2026. [3]

The availability of distance learning and online courses means that people can learn alongside working and don't have to commute long distances or take a break from family life to learn new skills. This growth demands that educational institutions offering online learning provide excellent student support alongside it. Queries before, during, and after enrollments must be received efficiently and solved instantly. Chatbots for education deliver intelligent support and provide on-the-spot-solutions to alleviate doubts, provide additional information and strengthen the relationship between students and the institution.

5. Student engagement

If students do not connect with their learning, it affects their outcomes. Studies have shown that the relationship between students' engagement in their learning material and their academic achievement is not to be ignored, with those who are more engaged achieving significantly better performance than those who are not.

Chatbots can help boost student engagement by being a constant presence. Intelligent chatbots can continuously interact with students and solve queries rapidly. Chatbots can assist students prior to, during, and after classes to enhance their learning experience and ensure they don't have to compromise while learning on a virtual platform.

6. Teaching assistance

It's hardly news that teachers are feeling more burnt out than ever. Overburdened institutional staff can deploy chatbots to help deliver a superior learning experience to their students in a "hands-off" way. Any repetitive tasks that are data-driven can be delegated to a bot powered by AI technology. These AI-driven educational assistants can handle student attendance tracking, test scoring, and sending out assignments, reducing a portion of the workload for busy educators. 

If, for example, attendance is automated, and a student is recorded as absent, chatbots could be tasked with sending any notes or audio files of lectures to keep them up to speed during their absenteeism.

The future of AI and chatbots in education 

The future of AI and chatbots in education is promising. Current AI trends, such as the natural language processing and machine learning capabilities of tools like ChatGPT, are likely to make chatbots more sophisticated and versatile. This development will bring many benefits to educational institutions, such as early detection of students who need help and personalized tuition.

Using chatbots for essay scoring and grading tasks has the potential to revolutionize the educational sector. Intelligent essay-scoring bots can reduce the workload of teachers and provide quicker feedback to students. Spaced Interval Learning is another promising concept for chatbots. By reminding students to repeat their learning at spaced intervals, chatbots can help cement the lesson in their minds and improve long-term retention.

Build an educational chatbot with Freshchat

Conversational AI is revolutionizing how businesses across many sectors communicate with customers, and the use of chatbots across many industries is becoming more prevalent. 

Educational institutions are adopting artificial intelligence and investing in it more to streamline services and deliver a higher quality of learning. 

AI chatbots in education can help engage with prospective students by focusing on intent and engagement. This is true right from the point of admission and is accomplished by personalizing their learning and gathering important feedback and other data to improve services further. 

If your educational institution is considering adopting an AI chatbot, why not schedule a demo or get in touch with our experts at Freshchat? They can answer any questions you have and guide you through the process of deploying the best-in-class educational chatbot and ensuring you use it to its full potential.

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