Sunday Onsite Presentation Session 2

Learner Experience Design Session Chair: Sylvie Studente

11:25-11:50

68000 | Digital Application Literacy and the Modern Classroom Experience

LeAnne Schmidt, Notre Dame Preparatory and Marist Academy, United States

Pivoting to online learning in a pandemic posed challenges for educators and students. This theoretical exploration examines qualitative research establishing the urgency of teaching not only content but also the applications in which students will be assessed. Critical deficiencies present themselves when students lack familiarity with a new learning platform. The net result is that the assessment fails to capture student learning, but instead assesses basic knowledge and facility with the application for assessment. In this study, learners with familiarity in the use of an application perform 10% better in the short term analysis and 25% better in the long term analysis, despite the fact that material assessed was entirely new content, not a building of incremental understanding toward a content goal. A process of Digital Application Literacy is recommended to assure that assessment results are the product of content learning and not merely savvy use of software. Details are provided for the achievement of Digital Application Literacy through four steps: 1) Elemental explanation; 2) Dialoguing consequences; 3) Low-stakes formatives; and 4) Post-assessment debriefing. Schools experienced significant drawbacks when the shut-down of schools left many students without ways to participate directly in learning activities. Though many schools would pivot to online learning and Zoom classes, these suffered from a lack of preparedness among learners in the new and different styles of digital applications used in remote learning. Clear understanding and utilization of Digital Application Literacy can offer solutions to these circumstances.

11:50-12:15

67410 | The Use of Chatbots to Support International Students in Higher Education: A Proposed Study

Sylvie Studente, Regent's University London, United Kingdom

Julia Sargent, The Open University, United Kingdom

A current challenge across the higher education (HE) landscape are increasing drop-out rates and falling levels of student engagement within first year cohorts (Ellis, 2019; Bryson, 2014). In the case of international students studying abroad, increasing drop-out rates are correlated with feelings of “social isolation” (Peel 2000). These feelings are reportedly amplified by issues of cultural adjustment (Erichsen & Bolliger, 2011), and further exacerbated if students experience limited opportunities to receive peer support (Kwon et al, 2010), 1998). When students feel isolated in the transition to university, drop-out rates can increase (Studente, 2021). In response to falling levels of engagement, the use of chatbots in HE is a current research area of interest (Klopfenstein et al, 2017). Educational researchers have reported a number of benefits of chatbot technology; e.g. improving motivation (Fryer & Carpenter, 2006), promoting peer communication (Kowalski et al, 2011), developing learning communities (Alencar & Netto, 2011), improving engagement (Pereira, 2016), and improving retention statistics (Benotti et al, 2014).

This paper presents a proposal for a study which focuses upon the use of chatbot technology to support international students in HE. The scope of the proposed study is two-fold; To investigate how chatbot technology can be used to assist international students with the transition to studying in HE abroad. Secondly, to investigate how chatbot technology can be used to facilitate collaborative learning to reduce feelings of social isolation. The paper will present relevant background literature and outline the proposal for study.