Conversational agents such as Alexa and Siri have brought this type of technology to the everyday household. However, these agents also provide a unique opportunity to provide mentoring and advisement to individuals in ways that can not be accomplished by traditional human-to-human interactions. This video presentation will provide details on multiple projects that leverage various types of conversational agents to address issues in the area of broadening participation in computing.
Discussion from the 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase (20 posts)
Brian Drayton
Researcher
May 13, 2019 | 12:22 p.m.
This is an interesting idea, which I can see has potential to help some people.
I am still a little unclear about where the knowledge being used by the chatbot is coming from — and how it will be kept current.
Kinnis Gosha
Lead Presenter Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
May 14, 2019 | 10:07 p.m.
The knowledge comes from multiple subject matter experts. It is compiled and reviewed, then added to the chatbot's knowledgebase.
Monae Verbeke
Facilitator Senior Research Associate
May 13, 2019 | 02:42 p.m.
This type of tech is really interesting. Do you happen to have a preliminary results on the impacts this work?
Kinnis Gosha
Lead Presenter Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
May 14, 2019 | 10:10 p.m.
This grant is fairly new, however there are several papers about my virtual mentoring research here.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Sarah Dunton
Gregory Rushton
Facilitator Director, TN STEM Education Center
May 14, 2019 | 06:33 a.m.
Thanks for sharing your work with us...how is this different than doing a web search and does it have any AI features built in?
Kinnis Gosha
Lead Presenter Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
May 14, 2019 | 10:13 p.m.
A few problems with a web search. One, there is no peer review of the content. Second, the info may be outdated. Third, it is not intelligent (ie it will give anyone the same info regardless of their background or situation.
Yes, AI is built in thanks to the chatbot framework we are using.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Sarah Dunton
Angelicque Blackmon
Researcher
May 14, 2019 | 10:17 a.m.
Is the chat bot available on the APP store yet? I'd like to share this with my son.
Kinnis Gosha
Lead Presenter Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
May 14, 2019 | 10:15 p.m.
Thanks for the interest, however the chatbot won't be live until 2020. We just received our funding 8 months ago and it's a LOT of work to put in to it.
Thank you for sharing your video. Is the Chatbot available to underrepresented students from non-HBCU institutions? Is a subscription required? Will the mentor component be a Q&A format or something more formal?
Kinnis Gosha
Lead Presenter Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
May 14, 2019 | 10:23 p.m.
1. They could use it if they wanted to. 2. Nope 3. Q and A plus other proactive-type updates. Mentors may have things to share that students may not know to ask, so it is important to get them that information when it is applicable to them.
Becca Schillaci
Facilitator Research Associate
May 17, 2019 | 11:17 a.m.
I think your response to #3 is really important. When I watched your video I wondered, how do students know what questions to ask. I imagine many young students don't know what they don't know about career paths (for example, that going to conferences is even a thing to do!) How does Chatbot "read between then lines" of students' questions to give them information they don't know they need? Can you provide an example?
Becca Schillaci
Facilitator Research Associate
May 14, 2019 | 08:58 p.m.
Thanks for sharing! In what ways are you measuring success of the Chatbot? I'd love to also hear about what student users are saying about the Chatbot!
Kinnis Gosha
Lead Presenter Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
May 14, 2019 | 10:25 p.m.
Right now, three ways: a) preliminary indicators (i.e. job interview, REU, GRE score, internship offer, etct), b) psychosocial measures (how they feel, confidence, etc.) and c) what they know (things about careers or graduate school that they didn't know before).
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Becca Schillaci
Monae Verbeke
Facilitator Senior Research Associate
May 15, 2019 | 12:06 a.m.
I wonder, have you considered something like Science Capital as a framework?
I'm also interested to hear about how you think it does influence their self-efficacy and or interests.
This is a really interesting idea. I like the strategy of reaching young students using technology they are familiar with. It seems like the success of this approach will really hinge on your capacity to disseminate this tool broadly to high school and college students. Are you developing a marketing and dissemination plan along with the technology?
Kinnis Gosha
Lead Presenter Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
May 16, 2019 | 03:28 p.m.
Not yet. I was planning to ask for a supplement once we go some positive data on its effectiveness.
As an educator/researched who has focused on mobile app development to get students engaged in learning Computer Science (Mobile CSP Project) I was drawn to this. What a fantastic idea! I, personally, think that it fits into the realm of "peer recruiting" as shown in our video - one of our students actually shares there how she spread the word through facetime and texting with friends. There is potential for it to fill the void of when an interested student feels "no one else is around" to talk to and ask questions. Along the lines of Carol's question, do you have a vision/idea on how this will be disseminated more broadly? That is, in an ideal world in which you have the funding already, how do you see a student finding out about this and using the technology for the first time?
Kinnis, great project. Thanks for posting a video about your work and for developing a tool that will support recruitment and retention of diverse students in CS education pathways. In BPC work there are a lot of requests for tools, your virtual mentoring chatbot is a model that I will point people to. Thanks for sharing the link to your virtual mentoring research papers too.
Brian Drayton
This is an interesting idea, which I can see has potential to help some people.
I am still a little unclear about where the knowledge being used by the chatbot is coming from — and how it will be kept current.
Kinnis Gosha
Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
The knowledge comes from multiple subject matter experts. It is compiled and reviewed, then added to the chatbot's knowledgebase.
Monae Verbeke
Senior Research Associate
This type of tech is really interesting. Do you happen to have a preliminary results on the impacts this work?
Kinnis Gosha
Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
This grant is fairly new, however there are several papers about my virtual mentoring research here.
Sarah Dunton
Gregory Rushton
Director, TN STEM Education Center
Thanks for sharing your work with us...how is this different than doing a web search and does it have any AI features built in?
Kinnis Gosha
Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
A few problems with a web search. One, there is no peer review of the content. Second, the info may be outdated. Third, it is not intelligent (ie it will give anyone the same info regardless of their background or situation.
Yes, AI is built in thanks to the chatbot framework we are using.
Sarah Dunton
Angelicque Blackmon
Is the chat bot available on the APP store yet? I'd like to share this with my son.
Kinnis Gosha
Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
Thanks for the interest, however the chatbot won't be live until 2020. We just received our funding 8 months ago and it's a LOT of work to put in to it.
Terri Norton
Thank you for sharing your video. Is the Chatbot available to underrepresented students from non-HBCU institutions? Is a subscription required? Will the mentor component be a Q&A format or something more formal?
Kinnis Gosha
Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
1. They could use it if they wanted to. 2. Nope 3. Q and A plus other proactive-type updates. Mentors may have things to share that students may not know to ask, so it is important to get them that information when it is applicable to them.
Becca Schillaci
Research Associate
I think your response to #3 is really important. When I watched your video I wondered, how do students know what questions to ask. I imagine many young students don't know what they don't know about career paths (for example, that going to conferences is even a thing to do!) How does Chatbot "read between then lines" of students' questions to give them information they don't know they need? Can you provide an example?
Becca Schillaci
Research Associate
Thanks for sharing! In what ways are you measuring success of the Chatbot? I'd love to also hear about what student users are saying about the Chatbot!
Kinnis Gosha
Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
Right now, three ways: a) preliminary indicators (i.e. job interview, REU, GRE score, internship offer, etct), b) psychosocial measures (how they feel, confidence, etc.) and c) what they know (things about careers or graduate school that they didn't know before).
Becca Schillaci
Monae Verbeke
Senior Research Associate
I wonder, have you considered something like Science Capital as a framework?
I'm also interested to hear about how you think it does influence their self-efficacy and or interests.
Melissa Demetrikopoulos, Ph.D.
Hi Kinnis,
It is great to see the progress in this project. How do you plan to let students and faculty know about the Chatbot once it goes live?
Kinnis Gosha
Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
We will contact department chairs to share with their students.
Carol Fletcher
This is a really interesting idea. I like the strategy of reaching young students using technology they are familiar with. It seems like the success of this approach will really hinge on your capacity to disseminate this tool broadly to high school and college students. Are you developing a marketing and dissemination plan along with the technology?
Kinnis Gosha
Hortenius I. Chenault Endowed Associate Professor
Not yet. I was planning to ask for a supplement once we go some positive data on its effectiveness.
Pauline Lake
As an educator/researched who has focused on mobile app development to get students engaged in learning Computer Science (Mobile CSP Project) I was drawn to this. What a fantastic idea! I, personally, think that it fits into the realm of "peer recruiting" as shown in our video - one of our students actually shares there how she spread the word through facetime and texting with friends. There is potential for it to fill the void of when an interested student feels "no one else is around" to talk to and ask questions. Along the lines of Carol's question, do you have a vision/idea on how this will be disseminated more broadly? That is, in an ideal world in which you have the funding already, how do you see a student finding out about this and using the technology for the first time?
Sarah Dunton
Kinnis, great project. Thanks for posting a video about your work and for developing a tool that will support recruitment and retention of diverse students in CS education pathways. In BPC work there are a lot of requests for tools, your virtual mentoring chatbot is a model that I will point people to. Thanks for sharing the link to your virtual mentoring research papers too.
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.