Abstract
The objective of this article is to analyze the didactic functionality of a chatbot to improve the results of the students of the National University of Distance Education (UNED / Spain) in accessing the university in the subject of Spanish Language. For this, a quasi-experimental experiment was designed, and a quantitative methodology was used through pretest and posttest in a control and experimental group in which the effectiveness of two teaching models was compared, one more traditional based on exercises written on paper and another based on interaction with a chatbot. Subsequently, the perception of the experimental group in an academic forum about the educational use of the chatbot was analyzed through text mining with tests of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), pairwise distance matrix and bigrams. The quantitative results showed that the students in the experimental group substantially improved the results compared to the students with a more traditional methodology (experimental group / mean: 32.1346 / control group / mean: 28.4706). Punctuation correctness has been improved mainly in the usage of comma, colon and periods in different syntactic patterns. Furthermore, the perception of the students in the experimental group showed that they positively value chatbots in their teaching–learning process in three dimensions: greater “support” and companionship in the learning process, as they perceive greater interactivity due to their conversational nature; greater “feedback” and interaction compared to the more traditional methodology and, lastly, they especially value the ease of use and the possibility of interacting and learning anywhere and anytime.
Highlights
Chatbots or “conversational bots” are artificial intelligence-based programs that enable person-to-machine interaction based on written or oral code (Bailey, 2019; Colace et al., 2018; Fryer et al, 2019; Ho et al, 2018)
The results of this study from the quasi experimental approach have shown that experimental group of students, those ones who used the chatbot outside the face to face classroom, have substantially improved the results obtained in the punctuation tests associated with the final exams for university access in the Spanish language subject
They are characterized by being scalable and adaptable to different learning rhythms and styles. They allow their integration into virtual learning environments, which generates more adaptable and open educational scenarios
Summary
Chatbots or “conversational bots” are artificial intelligence-based programs that enable person-to-machine interaction based on written or oral code (Bailey, 2019; Colace et al., 2018; Fryer et al, 2019; Ho et al, 2018). Microsoft (Cortana) and Apple (Siri) have been the prime movers in developing such programs through their operating systems as virtual oral communication assistants. All the more reason to analyze the environments where chatbots can be applied and developed, and to assess their use in teaching as resources and tools that can improve the teaching– learning process in a mobile, ubiquitous format, while personalizing and adapting learning itineraries. We hypothesize that the educational use of chatbots, as a resource to promote more personalized and integrable learning in different virtual learning environments, can make them a very valuable resource for teaching and to stimulate ubiquitous learning and more flexible digital environments
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