Abbas, N., Whitfield, J., Atwell, E. orcid.org/0000-0001-9395-3764 et al. (3 more authors) (2022) Online chat and chatbots to enhance mature student engagement in higher education. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 41 (3). pp. 308-326. ISSN 0260-1370
Abstract
Mature students transitioning into their first year of higher education face many difficulties that affect their motivation, participation and success. Their feelings of being disconnected from their peers and from their institutions are among the key barriers to the successful completion of their courses. Encouraging online student engagement among mature students to establish social connection with their instructors and peers can reduce their isolation and enhance their ‘sense of belonging’. During the academic year 2020/2021, the Lifelong Learning Centre (LLC) at the University of Leeds in the UK, decided to pilot an online chat platform ‘Differ’ including a chatbot ‘Bo’ after it had seen a decline in the use of programme Facebook groups. To promote student engagement and monitor the Differ online communities, sixteen digital student mentors were recruited and trained. During the pilot, feedback was collected from students and student mentors. A mixed-methods approach was adopted to boost robustness through triangulation. Several forms of data collection methods were used: a mentimeter, an online survey, three focus group sessions and a semi-structured interview. This study sheds light on the different aspects of creating student-led online communities and provides recommendations on how to improve the uptake of students in the future.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
Keywords: | Mature students; online chat; chatbots; peer engagement; sense of belonging; student-led online communities |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Computer Science (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 19 Jan 2024 16:12 |
Last Modified: | 19 Jan 2024 16:12 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/02601370.2022.2066213 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:207533 |
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