The growing potential of chatbots is getting more attention
in education, both in application and in the research area. Using chatbot technology as a new channel of
collecting feedback from students is an innovative approach that is less time and resource-demanding for
both sides included in evaluation: teachers and students.
The main purpose of this study is to
present a result summary of the students’ reflection upon courses collected in an innovative way – using
the educational chatbot Hubert. Hubert’s features include dynamic conversation, personal experience and
better interpretation of student feedback. Built on the basis of user feedback, new features include a
more dynamic chat conversation that allows for a more personalized experience and better comprehension
of students’ input. Hubert's main advantage is engaging students and customizing flow of
conversation about course perception and asking follow-up questions for additional explanation. The
study was conducted at three courses at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Organization and
Informatics in 2020. Number of students involved in study was n=69. Thematic analysis was conducted to
reveal patterns and themes within a data set of student-chatbot conversations. Following Braun and Clark's
six-step recursive framework, main themes and categories were found upon positive and negative aspects
of the course, suggestions for improvements and students' personal opinion. Since course evaluation
was conducted in full swing of COVID-19 pandemic, some of the themes are related to this topic. In
conclusion, guidelines and recommendations for implementing chatbots as a form of course evaluation in
higher education are highlighted.
Full text article available here:
https://library.iated.org/view/CIZMESIJA2021USI
