Students have received text messages from a Willy the Wildcat AI bot as part of a new program being introduced at Nebraska state colleges.
“One of the schools, Peru or Chadron, was using this program called EdSights, which is an AI chatbot. Before I got here, the process was already in the works for the messages,” Cody Westerhold, the WSC dean of students, said.
The main goal of the messages is to address the needs and concerns of students. The chatbot can guide students to different links that have been embedded in the program itself. Students can ask the chatbot a variety of questions ranging from, “What’s for lunch?” to “How do I get access to a tutor?” The job of the bot is then to guide students to the proper resources, whether that be through a link or advising a student to see someone in person.
“The program can recommend we follow up with a specific person, and then we can have a real staff member reach out to try to connect with that student. What the students do after that is up to them,” Westerhold said.
The program can also be used to identify students who may be at risk of dropping out of college. “We really want to help increase our retention and help students persist throughout their careers. If a student responds to a message with concerns of dropping out, it will send me an alert. The staff who are overseeing the chatbot get those messages and we are responding back to students.” Westerhold said.
Some students have decided to opt out of the messages, but it appears they are here to stay. “The plan is for it to continue. The plan is to use it for several years and then we’ll evaluate if this has been helpful, are students being benefited by it? We do an assessment and see if the program is working and what we can do to improve it,” Westerhold said.
Before the implementation of the AI messages, students would need to access WSC’s online resources, which can be difficult to navigate, or ask a member of faculty for assistance. This new resource can provide shyer students a more comfortable way of receiving information.
“We really want to find students who are struggling and connect with them.That way, students are not struggling in silence,” Westerhold said.
Students appear to have mixed feelings about the AI program as a whole. “I think it’s weird that they would text us instead of using the chatbot that we already have on the website,” Macey Peterworth, a student who opted out of the messages, said.
Other students appear to be concerned with security and the use of their personal information. “When I first saw these texts, I thought a telemarketer had gotten a concerning amount of my personal information. I now just mostly ignore them because I don’t feel that I need assistance from an AI robot,” Gretta Kinnison, a junior at WSC, said.
Most students were surprised to receive messages from the school, as messages of this nature have never been doled out at this capacity. There will be a learning curve for both students and the staff in charge of the EdSights program.
“It could definitely be a cool concept.There should have been more of an announcement leading up to its release to allow students to understand,” Reagan Fries, a WSC junior, said.