About Us

This project "Improving the Student Learning Experience: Helping Teachers Develop and Utilise Chatbot" is an innovative educational technology project funded by the Quality Enhancement Support Scheme (QESS). Students in the self-financing tertiary education sector have diverse backgrounds and varying learning paths. This project aims to improve the student learning experience by helping teachers develop and utilise chatbot to complement classroom and/or online teaching.

The core concept of this project is to enable teachers to understand and master chatbot technology to complement classroom and/or online teaching. Through a series of seminars, workshops, a website (Chatbot Learning Management System, CLMS), and synchronous online learning sessions, we will help teachers progress from understanding the concepts, technologies, skills, and precautions of chatbots to actually developing chatbots suitable for their own courses.

Chatbots can provide 24-hour instant feedback, breaking through the time and location constraints of traditional teaching, which is particularly suitable for students who need flexible learning arrangements. At the same time, chatbots can also add gamification elements to the classroom, enhancing students' learning motivation and engagement.

The justification for this project includes:

1. Online communication is the most preferred and utilised form of communication for young people. When communicating with a machine, students feel more secure to disclose their concerns and feelings.
2. In the digital era, traditional lectures and tutorials may not be the best pedagogical practices conducive to the achievement of learning outcomes, with minimal student engagement in class.
3. While chatbots have been proven to be effective in commercial settings, a good understanding of the concepts, technologies, skills, and precautions for successful implementation is required.
4. Chatbots have been proven to be useful in adding gamification elements in class. With the help from chatbots, students are more motivated to learn due to the fun factor. Teachers could also use chatbots to enhance student engagement.
5. The most important element in chatbot usage is the mindset of teaching staff. Some teachers might fear being replaced by machines in future. Thus, this calls for a solid understanding of artificial intelligence and chatbot technology.

Two focus groups have been conducted with teachers and students respectively to review the chatbot development and usage to enhance learning and teaching. Based on the findings, the following problems have been identified:

1. Since traditional lessons have constraints of location and time, students may not have time to attend class or receive adequate assistance from teachers after class. Part-time students are mostly working adults who may have difficulty attending classes during regular hours.
2. There are challenges in engaging the students constantly. Students may find the lessons mundane for some reason. Some of them are passive and reluctant to ask teachers questions both in face-to-face and online settings.
3. Teachers may face challenges when developing and using a chatbot, especially for teachers in humanities, social sciences, and business. Such difficulties may include setting up the chatbot and programming it to respond appropriately.
4. Teachers may not have time to attend to a large class (with say, a hundred students) during Q & A sessions at the end of a lecture. Tutorial class size may not be small for some subjects and it is difficult for teachers to address all questions from students.
5. Students nowadays expect instant feedback. To avoid causing annoyance to teachers, they may refrain from asking multiple questions at one time. Sometimes students may be reluctant to ask the same question repeatedly.
6. To refrain from disrupting teachers, students feel more comfortable asking questions in anonymous ("secret") mode rather than through chat function. In the past, students asked classmates sitting next to them, but in online settings, this is not possible.

Designing and implementing chatbots as an educational tool requires careful design as well as technical skills. As a pilot implementation, a chatbot prototype was created in PolyU SPEED for a particular course. Chatbots can hold human-like conversations, without getting bored or tired like humans. They can provide information in the form of text as well as images. They can be used conveniently on mobile phones and other devices.

The primary beneficiaries of this project include teachers and students from our institution and other self-financing tertiary education institutions. Teachers will gain knowledge and skills in developing and utilising chatbots, while students will benefit from improved learning experiences through 24-hour instant feedback and enhanced engagement.

Videos and other resources of all the seminars and workshops will be uploaded and hosted on the Chatbot Learning Management System (CLMS) under the PolyU SPEED website, which will be accessible to academic staff and students from our institution and other self-financing tertiary education institutions.

It is expected that our institution will continue to organize workshops and seminars for the on-going professional development of our teachers and teachers from other self-financing tertiary education institutions.