Applications of Chatbots in Education

Abstract

This chapter mainly concerns the application of artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbots in education (in the general sense). Three general applications of such systems are studied: a) language learning, b) teaching a course, and c) assistive for educational purposes (in the narrow sense). There are advantages and disadvantages for using chatbots in education. Their interaction with the students, human-like conversation simulation, 24/7 availability, and easy accessibility are some of the key advantages of using AI-based chatbots in education. The main disadvantage of such systems is their knowledge-bases (KB) requirement. A KB plays as the brain of a chatbot. However, their development is labor intensive and expensive in terms of time and effort. In this chapter, the main research studies on chatbots for the educational domain are reviewed and general construction of a chatbot as well as the evaluation metrics of chatbots are explained; and the available chatbot tools and systems used in education, in the general sense, are collected.