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

A Longitudinal Study on Boosting Students’ Performance with a Learning Companion

This study examines the impact of a coded virtual learning companion (LC) that interacts with students of an introductory information systems class throughout the semester. The LC is designed to motivate, advise on time management strategies, and study collaboratively. We conducted a between-subject longitudinal field experiment to investigate the LC’s impact on student motivation, time management, and learning outcomes. Statistical analysis, including a PLS-SEM model, shows that the LC significantly (p \u3c 0.05) improves extrinsic motivation, challenge, short-term planning, and time attitudes. A multiple mediator analysis confirms the role of motivation and time management as mediators between LC use and learning outcomes (subjective knowledge and exam scores). In addition, we conducted a qualitative workshop with the target group to identify barriers to LC adoption and derive mitigation strategies. Overall, our study reveals great potential to facilitate learning with LCs in higher education

Design Knowledge for Virtual Learning Companions from a Value-centered Perspective

The increasing popularity of conversational agents such as ChatGPT has sparked interest in their potential use in educational contexts but undermines the role of companionship in learning with these tools. Our study targets the design of virtual learning companions (VLCs), focusing on bonding relationships for collaborative learning while facilitating students’ time management and motivation. We draw upon design science research (DSR) to derive prescriptive design knowledge for VLCs as the core of our contribution. Through three DSR cycles, we conducted interviews with working students and experts, held interdisciplinary workshops with the target group, designed and evaluated two conceptual prototypes, and fully coded a VLC instantiation, which we tested with students in class. Our approach has yielded 9 design principles, 28 meta-requirements, and 33 design features centered around the value-in-interaction. These encompass Human-likeness and Dialogue Management, Proactive and Reactive Behavior, and Relationship Building on the Relationship Layer (DP1,3,4), Adaptation (DP2) on the Matching Layer, as well as Provision of Supportive Content, Fostering Learning Competencies, Motivational Environment, and Ethical Responsibility (DP5-8) on the Service Layer

A Reference Model for Collaborative Business Intelligence Virtual Assistants

Collaborative Business Analysis (CBA) is a methodology that involves bringing together different stakeholders, including business users, analysts, and technical specialists, to collaboratively analyze data and gain insights into business operations. The primary objective of CBA is to encourage knowledge sharing and collaboration between the different groups involved in business analysis, as this can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the data and better decision-making. CBA typically involves a range of activities, including data gathering and analysis, brainstorming, problem-solving, decision-making and knowledge sharing. These activities may take place through various channels, such as in-person meetings, virtual collaboration tools or online forums. This paper deals with virtual collaboration tools as an important part of Business Intelligence (BI) platform. Collaborative Business Intelligence (CBI) tools are becoming more user-friendly, accessible, and flexible, allowing users to customize their experience and adapt to their specific needs. The goal of a virtual assistant is to make data exploration more accessible to a wider range of users and to reduce the time and effort required for data analysis. It describes the unified business intelligence semantic model, coupled with a data warehouse and collaborative unit to employ data mining technology. Moreover, we propose a virtual assistant for CBI and a reference model of virtual tools for CBI, which consists of three components: conversational, data exploration and recommendation agents. We believe that the allocation of these three functional tasks allows you to structure the CBI issue and apply relevant and productive models for human-like dialogue, text-to-command transferring, and recommendations simultaneously. The complex approach based on these three points gives the basis for virtual tool for collaboration. CBI encourages people, processes, and technology to enable everyone sharing and leveraging collective expertise, knowledge and data to gain valuable insights for making better decisions. This allows to respond more quickly and effectively to changes in the market or internal operations and improve the progress

Кибербезопасность в образовательных сетях

The paper discusses the possible impact of digital space on a human, as well as human-related directions in cyber-security analysis in the education: levels of cyber-security, social engineering role in cyber-security of education, “cognitive vaccination”. “A Human” is considered in general meaning, mainly as a learner. The analysis is provided on the basis of experience of hybrid war in Ukraine that have demonstrated the change of the target of military operations from military personnel and critical infrastructure to a human in general. Young people are the vulnerable group that can be the main goal of cognitive operations in long-term perspective, and they are the weakest link of the System.У статті обговорюється можливий вплив цифрового простору на людину, а також пов'язані з людиною напрямки кібербезпеки в освіті: рівні кібербезпеки, роль соціального інжинірингу в кібербезпеці освіти, «когнітивна вакцинація». «Людина» розглядається в загальному значенні, головним чином як та, що навчається. Аналіз надається на основі досвіду гібридної війни в Україні, яка продемонструвала зміну цілей військових операцій з військовослужбовців та критичної інфраструктури на людину загалом. Молодь - це вразлива група, яка може бути основною метою таких операцій в довгостроковій перспективі, і вони є найслабшою ланкою системи.В документе обсуждается возможное влияние цифрового пространства на человека, а также связанные с ним направления в анализе кибербезопасности в образовании: уровни кибербезопасности, роль социальной инженерии в кибербезопасности образования, «когнитивная вакцинация». «Человек» рассматривается в общем смысле, в основном как ученик. Анализ представлен на основе опыта гибридной войны в Украине, которая продемонстрировала изменение цели военных действий с военного персонала и критической инфраструктуры на человека в целом. Молодые люди являются уязвимой группой, которая может быть главной целью когнитивных операций в долгосрочной перспективе, и они являются самым слабым звеном Систем