The Development of Chatbot Provided Registration Information Services for Students in Distance Learning

Abstract

In recent years, chatbots have become crucial, particularly for assisting students with real-time registration information. This research focused on 1) synthesizing registry works related to information provided for students, 2) designing chatbots and conversation structures in the form of interactive conversations between students and robots for answering questions and providing information tailored to their needs, and 3) examining and evaluating the use of chatbots in providing information services to students, while analyzing the accuracy and suitability of the developed chatbot. This study, based on research and development, utilized a sample consisting of 16 staff directly involved in the provision of registration information to students and 255 undergraduate students from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, with respondents being selected through a simple random sampling technique. The synthesis of the research results revealed the following findings: 1) A qualitative study revealed that the registration information related to students, called STOU Journey, consisted of 10 issues, and was required for the whole learning period. 2) The result of the design and development of the chatbot revealed that the developer chatbot could be used on both the website and the LINE application. It was also found that the chatbot could answer most questions correctly and completely. The chatbot responded quickly and was easy to use. The chatbot used language that was easy to understand and natural, while 3) satisfactory evaluation results from 255 undergraduate students showed that overall, students who had used the completed version of the chatbot were satisfied with the use of the chatbot at a high level (Mean = 4.19, SD = 0.98) while they also felt that the chatbot was easy to use (Mean = 4.33, SD = 0.95) and the using the chatbot felt like a natural conversation (Mean = 4.22, SD = 0.99).