Potentials of Chatbot Technologies for Higher Education: A Systematic Review

Chatbots are used in different areas such as customer service, healthcare and education. The potential for improving outcomes and processes in education is high but differs for different types of chatbots. As universities want to provide excellent teaching, it is important to find the chatbot technologies with the greatest possible benefit. This paper presents a systematic review of chatbot technologies in five application areas. For each application area, the ten most cited publications are analysed and a possible categorisation scheme for chatbot technologies is derived. Furthermore, it is investigated which chatbot technology types are used and their suitability for higher education is analysed. The results show that chatbots can be categorised using five categories derived from the 50 publications. A total of 14 different types of chatbot technologies are found in the five areas. Nine of them are suitable for use in higher education

Why Do We Turn to Virtual Companions? A Text Mining Analysis of Replika Reviews

Many people globally experience the feeling of loneliness and struggle with its consequences. A modern way to deal with this loneliness and lack of companionship is to use empathetic and emotional conversational agents. Often referred to as virtual companions, these agents can engage in human-like conversations with their users and build relationships with them through modern artificial intelligence technologies. One established service of such virtual companions is Replika, which we investigate in this study to explore what users expect to gain from long-term interactions with virtual companions and what they tend to talk about with them. Using a text mining approach and 119,831 reviews of the Replika service, we analyze users\u27 sentiments, emotions, and topics. Our results show that users interact with virtual companions to cope with their loneliness and, especially, to address their mental well-being. Furthermore, Replika users have a joyful and beneficial experience during long-term interaction with such virtual companions

Developing A Design Thinking Mind-set to Stimulate Sustainable Development in Chinese SMEs

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Entering The Tourism Industry And Generation Y Prospects: Turkish Entrepreneurs Planning To Enter The American Market

Many foreign firms competing globally are trying to secure a piece of the tourism market share in the United States. However, people are finding that starting and expanding a new business in the tourism industry to American consumers in the United States can be challenging. This document explores the strategy and mission of Turkish entrepreneurs assessing the tourism industry from a global perspective and choosing the United States to start securing a piece of the market with Generation Y individuals due to the countrys economic factors, the spending power of the average person, the hunger for cultural awareness and diversity, and the political stability of the country. Overall, the marketing strategy of the organization is discussed for the following factors: the product/service, pricing, distribution, and promotion. For calculating the budget, two options which are the fixed costs and the variable costs options are discussed.The focus of this study was to set up a business in a country such as the United States because such a country would have various types of diverse markets. The average income of most consumers in the developing countries seems to be sufficient to purchase services for pleasure, cultural awareness and other desires they would like to pursue. As such, it makes good business sense to enter this competitive market by differentiating ones offering through price, product and service quality to guarantee initial success

An Experimental Investigation of Emotional Labor Display Rules and Performance in a Human Resources Sexual Harassment Interview Simulation

Human Resource (HR) professionals are expected to engage in emotional labor (EL), or, management and control of their own emotions and emotional expression, during sexual harassment (SH) investigations. This EL expectation, or display rule (DR), is dynamic and complex requiring suppression of emotions and expressions of neutral empathy and is thus termed a dynamic neutral-empathic DR. Prior research shows that DRs in other occupations function as job demands that can deplete employees’ personal resources and negatively affect performance. The current study investigates the impact of the dynamic neutral-empathic DR by testing a process model that was developed via an integration of Job Demands-Resources and Conservation of Resources theories. The model tests predictions that emotion regulation and negative affect mediate relationships between the dynamic neutral-empathic DR and performance in the SH investigation context. The SH context comprised a simulated, SH investigation interview, which is part of professional training program developed by attorneys and psychologists and implemented in organizations. In the simulation, college students played the role of HR managers who interviewed an SH claimant as well as the alleged harasser. I used an experimental design to test the effects of this unique DR by randomly assigning participants to one of three conditions including a control condition with no DR, and two DR conditions. In the first DR condition, participants were instructed to adhere to the dynamic neutral-empathic DR. In the second DR condition, I manipulated DR adherence expectation, where more stringent requirements to adhere to the same, neutral-empathic DR were implemented. As such, I was able to test the impact of these two different DR conditions. Performance was measured during the simulated SH interviews via objective performance variables, and after via self-assessed performance and a memory task. Results providing evidence of resource depletion associated with the DR conditions were mixed. Negative affect mediated the relationship between DR condition and performance for participants in the DR conditions where greater levels of negative affect were negatively associated with performance. Emotional labor also mediated this relationship, but was unexpectedly associated with enhanced performance. Results are followed by a discussion and suggestions for future research

New developments in physician agency: the role of patient information

In economic perspective, the agency relationship between a patient and his physician has dramatically changed in the past years and is still evolving. Great emphasis is now placed on communication issues. The debate on the amount and precision of information on his health status the patient would/should acquire is still open and likewise the definition of the role of the patient’s choice in the agency relationship. The debate is not only academic: in fact, it has important policy implications on the reimbursement schemes for physicians and informed consent

Machinima And Video-based Soft Skills Training

Multimedia training methods have traditionally relied heavily on video based technologies and significant research has shown these to be very effective training tools. However production of video is time and resource intensive. Machinima (pronounced \u27muh-sheen-eh-mah\u27) technologies are based on video gaming technology. Machinima technology allows video game technology to be manipulated into unique scenarios based on entertainment or training and practice applications. Machinima is the converting of these unique scenarios into video vignettes that tell a story. These vignettes can be interconnected with branching points in much the same way that education videos are interconnected as vignettes between decision points. This study addressed the effectiveness of machinima based soft-skills education using avatar actors versus the traditional video teaching application using human actors. This research also investigated the difference between presence reactions when using avatar actor produced video vignettes as compared to human actor produced video vignettes. Results indicated that the difference in training and/or practice effectiveness is statistically insignificant for presence, interactivity, quality and the skill of assertiveness. The skill of active listening presented a mixed result indicating the need for careful attention to detail in situations where body language and facial expressions are critical to communication. This study demonstrates that a significant opportunity exists for the exploitation of avatar actors in video based instruction

Suicide vulnerability and risk: fragmented sense of self and psychache

Suicidality research has largely focused on psycho-social or demographic suicide risk factors, with less emphasis generally being directed towards understanding individual vulnerability factors. Moreover, although previous research has indicated that suicidality is underscored by the inner workings of personhood, suitable phenomenological approaches appear to have been infrequently applied. Accordingly, this thesis aimed to explore suicidal tendencies as predicted by low sense of self-cohesion, low self-esteem, psychological pain, distress, and emotions that underlie those psychological states. The selection of theoretically derived psychological factors was guided by the theories of Edwin S. Shneidman (psychache), and Heinz Kohut (self and self-cohesion). The cross-sectional nonexperimental design involved a survey of university students and staff, and volunteers from the South Australian community (N = 359, 72% females, 28% males, aged 18-67 years [M = 28.72; SD = 12.29]). Participants completed a battery of psychometric instruments, assessing self-cohesion, psychache, self-esteem, and psychological distress: 1) The Psychological Pain Assessment Scale (PPAS); 2) The Orbach and Mikulincer Mental Pain scale (OMMP); 3) The Psychache Scale (PS); 4) The Adelaide Self-Cohesion Scale (ASCS); 5) The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales 21 (DASS 21); 6) The Beck Self-Esteem scale (BSE); and 7) recent suicidality (from The Psychiatric Symptom Frequency Scale), lifetime attempts, and current suicidality indices. The thesis involved five studies, with results from each informing subsequent studies. Study 1 examined the psychometric properties of ASCS. Its three-factorial structure was replicated, confirming its validity for assessing a sense of self-cohesion. Study 2 tested relationships between self-cohesion, self-esteem, psychache, depression, anxiety, and stress. Exploratory factor analysis, followed by a Schmid-Leiman solution, found near-equivalence between the psychache measures OMMP and PS. Self-cohesion, self-esteem, psychache, depression, anxiety, and stress emerged as distinct but inter-related constructs, all strongly loading on a general factor of psychological frailty. Studies 3 and 4 explored relationships between these psychological factors and recent suicidal ideation/action, and history of suicide attempts. The utility of ASCS for assessing suicidality was also examined. The strongest contributor to recent suicidal ideation/action was depression, followed by self-esteem (part of self-cohesion) and psychache. The strongest contributor to lifelong suicide attempts was anxiety, followed by unmet childhood needs (part of self-cohesion). Study 5 clarified the nature of psychache in relation to three suicidality indices (recent suicidal ideation/action, lifetime attempts, and current suicidality). Two negative emotions underscored intense psychache across the three suicidality measures: self-hate and worthlessness. Additionally, “lure of death” was associated with lifetime suicide attempts only. Sadness, betrayal, and anger had negative associations with suicidality indices; hopelessness was associated with recent/current ideation, but not suicidal actions. It was concluded that suicide vulnerability is characterised by anxiety and a diminished sense of self, originating in early developmental frustrations resultant from unmet psychological needs. Further, tendencies for suicidal ideation/behaviours may partially be attributed to heightened levels of depression and psychache, and lowered self-esteem. As a clinical implication of the findings, it was proposed that a personal capacity for self-empathy may counter limitations of the self, help mollify deleterious effects of psychache and depression, reducing potential for suicide.Thesis (Combined MPsych (Clin) & Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 201