Design of a chatbot as a distance learning assistant

• Main Authors: Pedro Antonio Tamayo, Ana Herrero, Javier Martín, Carolina Navarro, José Manuel Tránchez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) 2020-03-01
• Series: Open Praxis
• Subjects: distance learning; online learning; artificial intelligence; chatbot
• Online Access: https://openpraxis.org/index.php/OpenPraxis/article/view/1063

Within the process of progressive digitization of materials and tools for teaching and distance learning of a subject of introduction to Microeconomics (quarterly, in year three of the Degree in Social Work), taught by the authors at the National University of Distance Education (UNED), a virtual assistant in the form of chatbot, or conversational robot, called EconBot, has been designed and made available to students from 2017. This paper presents the reasons that led to its adoption, the process of its development, differentiating two phases, its characteristics and functions, the assessment of its usefulness and the role of teachers in the implementation of this type of technological innovation.