Perceptions of the Design and Use Chatbots for Educational Purposes: A Dialogue Partner

https://doi.org/10.9743/JEO.2023.20.4.3

Abstract

This study aims to analyze how professionals preparing to use technology in education reflect on the phenomenon of chatbots as learning objects. The study is divided into two parts. For the first part of the study, 17 studies indexed in the Web of Science database that focus on using chatbots in education were selected for a systematic review. From this study, six discourses were identified: a Chatbot is not human; a Chatbot is developed iteratively; a Chatbot is a solution to a specific educational problem; a Chatbot is a technological issue; a Chatbot is constituted by narrative and a distinct “psychology”; and a Chatbot is always available with the correct information. In the second part of the study, the responses of 29 respondents (12 teaching librarians and 17 students of the Educational Technology course) to questions about chatbots were processed by qualitative analysis. The analysis used the discourses obtained from the review study and examined their specific perception among this particular group. A key result was that even though the respondents worked with three chatbots without AI, they mentioned similar characteristics in their evaluation that they would apply to a live teacher. Thus, they understand chatbots as part of their learning environment without differentiating between living and nonliving systems.

Keywords: review study, chatbot, qualitative research, librarian, artificial intelligence.