Using Chatbots to Increase Student Engagement

If you happen to be a parent, do you have a screenager or know one? If so, how are you communicating with them and is it effective? Sheenah Hartigan deals with this generation of student (a.k.a. Gen Z or iGeneration) all day long every day at Ocean County College. Students are changing as is technology. After implementing a process to map out student processes, inefficiencies and opportunities, the Director of Enrollment Services came up with a modality to reach them quickly and efficiently. It utilizes AI—you guessed it, a chatbot. His name is Reggie. Hear about him and the vendor the college partnered with that brought this virtual assistant to life.

Highlights include:

• What is the purpose and outcome of Ocean County College’s Student Success Experience?
• How do you build a chatbot’s knowledge base and how long does it take?
• Where can a virtual assistant help throughout the various student processes at an institution?
• How have students responded to this new technology and what was their involvement in the chatbot’s training?
• What are the various challenges to implementing a tool like this and best practices at the onset?