1,200+ Business School students used my chatbot - Ed - in class. Here is what you should know.

In a glimpse:

?? 2 billion people use messaging apps at least once a month (primarily Whatsapp and Messenger)

?? As of January 2019, the educational chatbot I created, Ed, has exchanged over 31,000 messages with 1,200 international Business School students

?? Among 700+ students surveyed, there is 99% satisfaction rate

?? 98% of them would like to see chatbots used in more classes, and a majority would like to see one integrated in all of their classes (63%)

Having taught at various business schools over the past 5 years, I’ve noticed that the more interactive I made my classes - the higher the understanding and satisfaction of my students. Two years ago I dug into my product manager toolkit to run a real-life A/B test (article here) and confirmed the ability of digital tools in the classroom to improve the student outcomes and educational experience.

To take it even further, a year ago, I decided to build and launch a dedicated chatbot for my students, Ed.

First things First: What is a chatbot? ??

Messaging apps have overtaken modern communication and transformed the digital landscape, having surpassed social networks in 2017 to reach over 2 billion monthly active users (eMarketer, 2017). With the majority of that activity taking place on the top 3 apps, Whatsapp, Messenger, and WeChat (We Are Social, 2018) – users have demonstrated their insatiable appetite to come together and engage with this medium.

Facebook’s Messenger introduced chatbots to its messaging platform in 2016 (Techcrunch, 2016), and now counts over 300,000 active bots – effectively allowing users to not only speak to humans, but to computer-generated companions (Venturebeat, 2018).

A chatbot is a computer program that mimics human conversation through the use of artificial intelligence. They can transform the way people interact with the internet from a series of self-initiated tasks to a quasi-conversation. ( The Guardian , 2016)

It is also worth noting that the scope of chatbots is not contained exclusively to text & images sent via messaging applications, but also includes voice-based platforms such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri.

Building Ed, the Educational Chatbot: from an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to a full classroom assistant

Wanting to further enhance the interactive nature of my lectures, back in March 2017, I created a chatbot to assist my students before, during and outside of class. I couldn’t find anyone else providing such an experience, so I thought I’d create it myself.

The chatbot was very much an MVP initially - limited to recognizing only a few words and designed for a single, specific 3-hour class. More concretely, the chatbot (accessible via Messenger) was limited to two functions:

1?? Students could chat directly with me thanks to ? direct conversations ?. I found this feature particularly handy for shy students.

2?? After their final presentations, they were able to receive their feedback.

In January 2018, while introducing a new 18h program (“User Research“ - at Skema), I used the opportunity to push the bot further, integrate it into the coursework from the groundup and introduce a few more features:

3?? Access referenced documents/articles/biographies directly (i.e. whilst discussing ? screening questions ? used in questionnaires, students were able to view a template if they wanted to see a concrete application of the topic).

4?? Receive push notifications at any time - whether an inspirational message (? Today is presentation day - good luck! ?), instructions or to be informed that their presentation feedback was ready.

From Passive to Active learning

The state of the student when they receive an email is vastly different then when using a chatbot: in the former, they are passively receiving information while in the former, they are actively seeking out information.

Giving students a tool to find the information they are looking for (in a fun way) immediately sparked their interest and transformed their curiosity into engaged learning. Entering a keyword and obtaining an instant answer (including sometimes one or two emojis) provides an instant reward to the student triggering it, and motivates them to do it again. And they would!

Classes were not only more dynamic (as students could get to speed on definitions in real time for example), but the quality of student’s final presentation were of a higher caliber – having been able to dive deeper into the subject matter.

Gamifying the learning process not only made it fun, but allowed them to achieve a heightened level of understanding.

Timely and Effective Communication

Using a chatbot allows teachers to reach students in a timely and effective manner. Based on my experience and data, 100% of messages sent were read (with approx. 90% of them read within one hour!).

When an interaction was required (i.e. click on ? Go ? to receive your feedback), the interactivity rate neared 100%. An email could hardly beat that. What’s more, sending warm wishes and gentle reminder during holidays were equally well met.

Bonus for me: Once the chatbot was fully integrated, I spent less time answering student emails, as questions began flowing through Ed and I was able to more quickly answer, from anywhere.

99% of Students Satisfied

Curious to confirm my impressions from the student’s perspective, a few weeks ago I shot a survey to all of my students who had experienced the chatbot - over 1,200 international students from schools such as Kedge, Audencia, Skema, Montpellier Business School, and more.

My objective being to demonstrate the chatbot’s ability to increase student understanding and satisfaction - and ultimately decide if Ed was worthy of further development - I asked the following questions:

How satisfied were you with Ed, the educational chatbot?

Did you find that interacting with Ed during class improved your educational experience?

Would you appreciate seeing chatbots used in more classes?

Within a few hours, 700 students answered and confirmed my belief of Ed’s ability to enhance the educational experience.

• Among 737 respondents, 99% declare being satisfied with Ed, with the majority declaring to be very satisfied (62%).
• Nearly 90% of the students found interacting with Ed improved their educational experience.
• Most interestingly, 98% (!!!) would like to see chatbots used in more classes - with the majority (63%) wanting to see them rolled out to all of their classes.

A Few Challenges Remain

So far, chatbots have revealed very limited downsides, but challenges I’m actively addressing are the following:

1. Reliance on a Facebook account may leave some students unable to speak with Ed. Plugging the bot into Messenger allowed for a wide reach, but doesn’t cover those that avoid the social network. Non-Facebookers represented ~1% of my students, but the ability to sign up to Messenger without a Facebook account should alleviate this issue in the future.
2. Privacy concerns. Students interacting with Ed indirectly share their public Facebook profile picture, with administrators able to access their picture and name. While this may scare some students initially, a quick reminder the content is limited and already widely available alleviates concerns.
3. Short-term student attention. Many students tend to test the limits of the bot by interacting with it within the first few minutes. While this can certainly lower their attention initially, I’ve found it easily avoidable by introducing the bot right before a break.
4. Setup time. Designing a reliable chatbot with even limited features currently requires a minimum of 1-2 weeks. While introducing bots to multiple classes would allow setup time to decrease dramatically over time, the most reliable information is often required to be entered manually. While the next step would be to allow information to be ingested and generated by AI directly from teaching collateral (slides, readings) - the best bot experiences are like any experiences - conceived with a specific use case in mind.

The Future of Chatbots & Teaching

I believe that the way we teach should evolve alongside the digital environment that surrounds us and our students. Interactivity will increasingly become an integral strategy to ensuring we retain and transform our student’s attention to understanding.

As Generation Z continues to enter business schools, I believe that we as teachers, should meet them halfway – adapting to their codes and expectations just as much as they do ours – and this means leveraging the most relevant communication channels to deliver the right information, at the right time.

I’ve found the chatbot to be a fantastic way to speak with them, on terms that suit us both.

? What do you think about using chatbots in a school environment?

If you want me to teach or implement a chatbot at your school, you can shoot me an email at [email protected]