How to Use Chatbots for Education?

How to Use Chatbots for Education?

AI chatbots have invaded many areas of our life due to their efficiency and 24-7 availability. So, there’s no reason not to use chatbots for education. On the contrary, using a chatbot for education is a fantastic way to enrich learning and improve student communication.

You’ll have virtual assistants for many students and prospective students as well. An education chatbot can engage students and improve learning in ways you never thought possible.

Before we move on, let’s take a moment to tell you more about Chatbots, their benefits, and how education can benefit from them. We’ll also go through some of the best chatbot tools for education and what to consider when you choose an education chatbot.

What Do You need to Need to Know about AI Chatbots?

AI Chatbots are artificially intelligent chatbots. They are chatbots that use artificial intelligence technology. They are bots that users can interact with through messaging platforms. You must have come across AI chatbots. Many businesses use them to answer customer questions after hours.

How AI Chatbots Work?

Chatbots benefit from machine learning technology. Through Natural Language Processing (NLP), these AI Chatbots can automatically detect and understand questions. The outcome is a bot that can interact successfully with humans and answer their questions non-stop.

Developers train chatbots to do so much more. Users are familiar with chatbots, mainly customer support. Still, this article will explain how conversational AI can help us in many sectors: running a business efficiently or in the education sector.

What Chatbots Can Do for Us?

Chatbots are intelligent computers that don’t get tired. They can offer support, act like human beings, detect emotions, understand questions, and respond. Artificially intelligent conversational tools are available on various, if not all, instant messaging platforms, so they are readily available and accessible by many people and can support us in many ways.

We’ll discuss the benefits of using chatbots and focus on the benefits of the education chatbot. But first, let’s see how chatbot technology advances help us achieve our general goals and education. AI Chatbot is a human-like assistant that can do many tasks to help humans make the most of their time, offer a service, answer a question, and make our lives easier in general.

Chatbots are the ones in messaging apps like Facebook Messenger Job Bot or those used to answer hundreds of questions on Facebook Ads online, many questions you possibly don’t have time to respond to.

Benefits of Using Chatbots

There are many benefits to using chatbots. First things first, they are efficient and save time. If you think about it, not many people or any can answer questions of hundreds or thousands of people simultaneously, but it is something that a trained bot can do. They can schedule meetings. They have access to databases and can offer instant replies to different inquiries. Their alertness, availability, and efficient business handling make them a great addition to any industry. Plus, with trained bots, anyone can have a personalized virtual assistant to cater to their needs.

Here are some of the amazing benefits:

  • There are no language barriers with bots. They can speak many languages.
  • They can serve many at the same time.
  • Help you run your business efficiently.
  • Trained bots can collect data and offer insights.
  • They can provide personalized assistance and feedback.
  • Bots are easy to install, manage, and run. No coding experience is required.
  • Easy to access as they are available in messaging apps.

How Do Educational Institutions Benefit from Chatbots?

We’ve seen how artificial intelligence, in general, is beneficial. Let’s see how artificially intelligent conversational tools can support educational institutions. Newcomers always require help, so prospective students may have various inquiries about the various programs in your school, the different requirements, and the admission process. So, an education bot is a fantastic solution for your educational institution.

Chatbot Applications in Education

It saves everybody’s time and is convenient because students may not be in the same area or not in the same time zone. An education chatbot in that way is the best solution to help them understand the process effectively. In addition, this makes the prospective students’ visit to your website more efficient.

Admission processes with a chatbot at students’ disposal make the process simple. This way, students get the support they need, whether it’s in school or higher education institutions. However, sometimes teachers and administrative assistants are not enough. So here comes the role of a chatbot. It doesn’t replace them, but it helps everybody involved in the process.

Improve the Learning Process

One of the best features of intelligent chatbots is that they can offer students a personalized learning environment by analyzing student responses and offering personalized feedback to improve student interaction and provide better student support. In this way, students learn and get the proper student feedback that they might be lacking due to unavailable teachers.

This can provide students with a better-personalized learning experience and leads to high student success rates. In addition, Chatbots can answer questions about the curriculum, course fees, lesson plans, etc. So, modern-day teachers are grateful to these education bots because who wouldn’t want an extra pair of hands to assist? You can also use messaging bots to connect students and teachers and be the place for alumni groups.

6 Best Chatbot Tools to Use for Education

  • Duolingo
  • Hubspot Chatbot
  • Botsify
  • Mongoose
  • Ivy.ai
  • GeckoEngage

Duolingo

Duolingo

Duolingo is the most famous intelligent chatbot for education, helping students everywhere learn new languages at their own time and pace. Duolingo offers several languages like German, French, Italian, Japanese, and Arabic. Duolingo also offers fictional languages for those who want to speak like their favorite characters (Klingon and High Valyrian).

Features

  • Learn any language of your choice at your own time and pace.
  • Duolingo motivates language learners through daily challenges, tracking progress, and fun games.
  • Duolingo for schools is designed to assist teachers by creating fun and bite-sized lessons.
  • Teachers can add their teaching objectives to Duolingo and customize assignments and lessons to fit students.

Cons

  • Duolingo doesn’t offer all the languages. So, you might not find it over there if you’re looking for a not-so-popular language.
  • Limited content.
  • Students can’t fully interact with the bot and ask questions.
  • It can help but can’t make anyone proficient in any language.
  • It doesn’t cover the variety or all the dialects of a language.

URL: https://www.duolingo.com

Hubspot Chatbot

Hubspot Chatbot

Hubspot is a free chatbot builder software that can be used for marketing, sales, and other services. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be used for educational institutes. Even if it’s not designed as an educational chatbot, the education industry will benefit from a chatbot. It may not help students learn, but it can answer questions about the admission process. Admission processes take a lot of time for administrative staff in the administration offices.

Features

  • On college websites, this bot can answer student queries.
  • Eliminate the time-consuming task of answering repeated student questions.
  • Students can easily find answers to basic questions about campus guides, scholarships, hostel facilities, library memberships, activity clubs, and financial aid.
  • Students find information about college programs hassle-free.
  • Free online form builder to easily design your bot according to your needs.
  • Free meeting scheduler app in case students want to set an appointment.

Cons

  • The bot can’t replace human interaction, especially if students ask questions the bot is not prepared to answer.
  • This bot can help with repetitive administrative work tasks, but it doesn’t offer chatbot templates, especially for education.

URL: https://www.hubspot.com/products/crm/chatbot-builder

Botsify

Botsify

Many global brands like Toyota, Unilever, Spotify, and the World Health Organization trust Botsify. Botsify is available on many platforms: website chatbots, Facebook Messenger chatbots, WhatsApp chatbots, Instagram, SMS, and Telegram chatbots. It means you don’t have to have multiple online portals for your audience to find you. One of the best things about this chatbot is that it caters to the needs of educational institutes, not just sales and marketing departments. Furthermore, the younger generation can access this bot from any platform, as it’s available on many social media platforms.

Features

  • Botsify chatbot speaks multiple languages.
  • Conversational forms to engage with your customers or students
  • Data Store function so that you can use data later.
  • Education chatbots can automate the enrollment process.
  • An education chatbot offers a personalized learning environment.
  • A school chatbot will help kids learn on their preferred platform.
  • Students can check the material of a particular course, learn online, and check their progress.
  • Education consultancy to future students.

Cons

  • No artificial intelligence bot can teach science like a teacher with well-equipped labs.
  • No interaction between many students at the same time.

URL: https://botsify.com

Mongoose

Mongoose

Mongoose is an AI chatbot designed for higher education institutions. Mongoose is an excellent addition to the education industry as it helps students and educators alike. Teachers, for example, don’t spend their time answering every query personally.

Features

  • 24/7 support for students.
  • Seamless integration to your online platforms.
  • This intelligent bot assists new visitors to your website in scheduling meetings.
  • No double bookings and more efficient streamlined processes because the bot syncs with the staff’s calendars.
  • Speed up the admission process and less headache for staff.

Cons

  • This education chatbot supports the staff only with student enrollment and other administrative duties.
  • No support regarding course material or assessments.

URL: https://www.mongooseresearch.com/harmony-chatbot-for-higher-education

Ivy.ai

Ivy-ai

Ivy. ai is a self-service education chatbot that serves colleges and universities. Education chatbots like Ivy make everyday life easier for students and staff. For example, the Ivy chatbot helps universities stay organized by performing exceptional service to staff, minimizing hectic work, and letting staff and teachers focus on what matters.

Features

  • Easy to implement. No special knowledge is required.
  • Mobile App to access it from anywhere.
  • Ivy. ai provides analytics and lets you see questions that students frequently ask, so you can plan your content ahead and anticipate and update your FAQs database.
  • Ivy.ai saves staff time by answering student questions about financial aid, online programs, and admissions.
  • Ivy. ai can also be an IT service, helping users access their emails or retrieve passwords.

Cons

  • Education chatbots only answer basic inquiries and cannot help answer sophisticated or out-of-the-box questions.
  • These developed systems cannot automatically detect whether they are helpful to students or users or not.

URL: https://ivy.ai

GeckoEngage

GeckoEngage

GeckoEngage believes that educators should have more time to focus on what matters so they help teachers and students communicate and engage hassle-free. With GeckoEngage at your disposal, you can work efficiently as if you’ve increased your team capacity.

Features

  • GeckoEngage takes you only a few days to set it up without prior knowledge
  • Effective solution to help your staff get more work done
  • Accommodates students and answers their questions around the clock.
  • Integrates with CRM
  • It offers data so you can make informed decisions.
  • Excellent customer support, so you never encounter any software problems.

Cons

  • Limited responses to some questions.
  • It could lead to frustration.
  • Could do a better job supporting teachers
  • No rerouting of difficult questions.

URL: https://geckoengage.com

What should you consider in Chatbots for Education?

When you consider using chatbot tools for education, there are many factors that you must think about. For example, do you want the chatbot to help students with their curriculum or a bot to support your staff with admission processes? For example, ، AI Chatbot platforms and service providers repeatedly assess how useful chatbots can be for users, and they are constantly working on improving them.

Students nowadays are already familiar with technology use and, more often than not, turn to Google to research topics. By introducing chatbots to help them, you’re already supporting their education. You don’t need printed forms for students to fill out surveys. A friendly bot can improve the process by asking your students questions whenever they feel like answering. You can pick your chatbot based on the following criteria:

Cost

Getting a virtual assistant is great for supporting your staff, but one of the first things you should consider is how much does it cost? Some service providers, like Hubspot, offer some services for free, and others provide numerous packages you can choose from according to your needs.

Languages

You should consider a chatbot that speaks many languages if you have students all across the globe.

Customer Support

Some bots offer around-the-clock customer support. This, of course, depends on how heavily you rely on your chatbot.

Analysis

You should invest in a chatbot that gathers and analyzes data to get more insights from your chatbot.

Extra Training

Do you need a simple or sophisticated chatbot that you can frequently train and educate to address your business needs?

Virtual Teaching Assistants or Administrative Support Only

Most of the bots in this list, except for Duolingo and Botsify, offer administrative support only. So, if you want your educational chatbot to offer learning material to students, it’s important to note that not all bots are suitable for you.

Final Words

Students, teachers, and staff can all benefit from the amazing support educational chatbots offer. If you want to focus on what matters, invest in a bot that takes all the stress out of the education process. Help your students and staff by offering them artificial intelligent chatbots, great assistance for everyone involved.

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