The potential of educational chatbots for the support and formative assessment of students

Abstract

Higher education faces a number of challenges today. One of these is the diversity of students and the growth of enrollment in online programs. The direct personal relationship with students has been reduced and this, combined with larger ratios, makes it difficult to provide the personalized follow-up that students need. in this context, artificial intelligence comes in as a valuable technological support. Over the last decades, different types of chatbots have been used in the field of edu cation under different names, such as agents, virtual characters, intelligent agents, conversational bots, cognitive assistants, pedagogical agents,“guidebots” or avatars (Vijayakumar et al., 2019; Trust et al., 2023; Okonkwo & Ade-Ibijola, 2020). Chat bots are conversational or interactive agents that provide instant responses to the user using natural language in the form of text messages (websites or mobile applications), voice-based (Alexa or Siri), or a combination of both (Kumar, 2021). They make it possible to maintain a dialogue between a human and a computer (Dimitriadis, 2020), according to the information contained in a database and in an artificial intelligence module. These chatbots are programmed using a variety of technologies, such as programming languages and databases. They can use artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve their ability to understand natural language and adapt to users' needs and preferences (Wang et al., 2018).