Chatbots as educational assistants: teaching about the digital footprint

Abstract

The digital footprint is a trace of everything a user does online. Everyone has one, but not everyone is aware of how to remain safe when being online. Every action a user takes when navigating through the Web or social media matters. Unlike other methods of communication, the Internet holds a record of each user’s activity, the key part being that this record will be held permanently. Therefore, each user should have the responsibility of making sure his/her digital footprint is protected. As the world becomes more technologically advanced, so should teaching methods. Young adults are fast learners and sometimes learning techniques do not adequately fit in with the teaching methods still being used in classrooms. Students want immediate and concise help, which is not something they can always find in other humans. Several studies show how chatbots have proven to be efficient teaching methods as they not only consider the technological aspect, but also emotional aspects. They also have one major advantage over humans, chatbots have infinite patience and they do not ever get tired. Therefore, this Master thesis answers the following question: to what extent can a chatbot prove to be efficient enough to teach young adults about their social media digital footprint? This Master thesis seeks, through the creation of an intelligent chatbot that takes in young adults’ responses, to provide knowledge about the digital footprint and the risks of being a social media user. The process behind this work includes three main stages: developing the chatbot, testing the chatbot, and evaluating the chatbot. The chatbot uses NLP (Natural Language Processing) techniques and Chatterbot (Python package) to become intelligent enough to recognize users’ answers. Six Pompeu Fabra University bachelor students participate in this chatbot interaction to provide feedback and a proper evaluation about their experience and knowledge gained. Finally, based on this feedback, the Master thesis shows that this teaching method is successful in teaching young users about their digital footprint.