Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Chatbot-Based Workshop for Experiential Learning and Proposing Applications

Abstract

Purpose –This study examined the effectiveness of a chatbot workshop conducted at Lovely Professional University, Punjab, in promoting student involvement among undergraduate students taking the elective course "Doing Business with AI." In this course, non-STEM students learn how to create a chatbot prototype using the 'Dialogue' Programme and suggest potential applications for AI chatbots. Design/methodology/
approach –Students develop a strong understanding of conversational and user-centric design methodologies through engaging workshops and practical learning exercises. The chatbot workshop aims to help inexperienced learners with limited AI knowledge understand and connect the knowledge inputs and outputs of conversational agents driven by NLP, to effectively respond to user inquiries. Findings – According to the findings, a significant majority of the students (81.3%) who took part in the hands-on workshop showed active involvement. Additionally, a high percentage (90.7%) reported feeling moderately to highly skilled in the experiential learning chatbot session. Most students who were surveyed expressed their agreement that the experiential chatbot workshop successfully achieved its intended learning outcomes. Practical implications – The findings of this study can provide valuable insights for practitioners who are developing strategies for chatbot-based workshops focused on experiential learning. Originality/value –Through the validation of a conceptual model rooted in learning theories and technology-mediated learning (TML) models, we have put forth two applications pertaining to business game simulation, as well as an additional application focused on outlier detection in data.