Poster: The Use of a Virtual Personal Assistant (FENNChat) as a Platform for Providing Automated Responses to ODL Students’ Queries at UNISA

Chaka, Chaka; Nkhobo, Tlatso

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49932-7_28

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The latter (chatbots) have various names such as voice assistants, intelligent assistants, virtual assistants, intelligent tutors, and conversational agents. To this effect, they have multiple educational uses, one of which is to facilitate learning, or to promote learning support (Khare et al, 2018;Luckin et al, 2016;Tegos et al, 2014; also see Chaka and Nkhobo, 2021). In this case, using an AI-powered chatbot to investigate its impact on students' critical thinking (see Goda et al, 2014) serves as one example in which AI can be utilized to facilitate one of the skills regarded as Industry 4.0 skills.…”

Section: Discussion and Synthesis Of Findings Ai: Applications Prospe...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fourth industrial revolution—a review of applications, prospects, and challenges for artificial intelligence, robotics and blockchain in higher education

Chaka¹

2022

RPTEL

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Much has been written about the fourth industrial revolution’s (4IR) contributions to and its impact on higher education (HE). In addition, review studies have been conducted on the contributions of 4IR technologies to and on their impact on HE. Most of these studies have reviewed single 4IR technologies in isolation as attested to by the review studies cited in the current study. Against this backdrop, the current study reviewed, discussed, and synthesized the applications, prospects, and challenges of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and blockchain at given higher education institutions (HEIs) between 2013 and 2019 as reported by 26 selected journal articles. Employing a slightly modified version of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for searching and screening, three of the findings of this study are worth mentioning. Firstly, the dominant AI technologies for learning are chatbots, and AI holds the prospect of personalized, scalable, and affordable learning. Secondly, the applications of robotics are exploratory in nature, and have a meta-teaching and a meta-learning orientation. Thirdly, some of the applications of blockchain relate to digital grading, digital credentialing and digital certification, and to real-time contracting and time stamping of learning. The implications of this review are that the three sets of technologies reviewed, have a lot applications for HE, barring the challenges that have been outlined.

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Section: Discussion and Synthesis Of Findings Ai: Applications Prospe...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fourth industrial revolution—a review of applications, prospects, and challenges for artificial intelligence, robotics and blockchain in higher education

Chaka¹

2022

RPTEL

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“…Owing to time constraints, the face-to-face student support classes offered to these students is restricted to certain designated days such as Saturdays or particular week days during school holidays. These designated student support classes fall under a special project (the Mathew Goniwe Project) housed in the College of Education (Chaka and Nkhobo, 2021). Outside these designated face-to-face student support days, students can be offered support via myUnisa, which is UNISA's legacy LMS.…”

Section: Statement Of the Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Outside these designated face-to-face student support days, students can be offered support via myUnisa, which is UNISA's legacy LMS. myUnisa, like many other LMSs (Ahalt and Fecho, 2015;Chaka, 2020;Chaka and Nkhobo, 2021;Mayanja, Tibaingana and Birevu, 2019), has an online discussion forum (ODF) tool embedded in it as part of its online suite of tools. This ODF, like most that are embedded in LMSs, has its own vital affordance that can be tapped into such as asynchronous interaction and responses.…”

Section: Statement Of the Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But, what is indisputable across higher education institutions (HEIs) is that the usage of learning tools (online or mobile) is not an exclusive preserve of ODeL institutions alone, notwithstanding the fact that such tools should serve as the bedrock for deploying student support at these institutions (Ferreira and Venter, 2011;Tait, 2014). Therefore, within the ecosystem of learning tools, integrating online and mobile learning tools for student support purposes in the ODeL arena is not only essential but also indispensable (Tait, 2014;Chaka and Nkhobo, 2021). Doing so is especially relevant in the era in which there is a plethora of learning tools or applications (apps) (Chaka and Nkhobo, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, within the ecosystem of learning tools, integrating online and mobile learning tools for student support purposes in the ODeL arena is not only essential but also indispensable (Tait, 2014;Chaka and Nkhobo, 2021). Doing so is especially relevant in the era in which there is a plethora of learning tools or applications (apps) (Chaka and Nkhobo, 2021). To this effect, the idea of integrating online and mobile learning tools for the purpose of supporting students becomes even more crucial for an ODeL institution such as the University of South Africa (UNISA), which is a mega ODeL institution (Liebenberg, Chetty and Prinsloo, 2012) boasting students with diverse demographics drawn from various geographies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Leveraging MoyaMA, WhatsApp and Online Discussion Forum to Support Students at an Open and Distance e‑Learning University

Chaka¹,

Nkhobo²,

Lephalala³

2021

ECEL

Self Cite

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This paper reports on a study that integrated two instant messaging applications (Moya Messenger App and WhatsApp) and a myUnisa’s online discussion forum (ODF), and utilised them as tools to support student learning at an open and distance e‑learning university in South Africa. The participants in this study were 41 undergraduate education students enrolled for an undergraduate English Studies module. Employing a case study research design, the study utilised voluntary sampling to select its participants, and set out to answer three research questions. Data were collected through the three afore‑mentioned tools. To this effect, the study made the following observations. First, both the instructor and students were able to engage in asynchronous and synchronous scaffolding using Moya Messenger App. This included engaging in features of scaffolding such as orientation, coaching, conceptual scaffolding and meta‑cognitive scaffolding, largely by the instructor. Second, the instructor used Moya Messener App to engage in presence teaching, while students utilised it to engage in presence learning. Third, students utilised WhatsApp to produce short synchronous formal essays based on a compare and contrast essay writing activity. Fourth and last, students used myUnisa’s ODF to produce meta‑content reflective writing about the module.

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Technological Intervention Through the Virtual Assistant Alexa in the Development of Linguistic Skills of a New Language

Cóndor-Herrera

Jadán-Guerrero

Acosta-Rodas

et al. 2021

Communications in Computer and Information Science

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Poster: The Use of a Virtual Personal Assistant (FENNChat) as a Platform for Providing Automated Responses to ODL Students’ Queries at UNISA

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

Fourth industrial revolution—a review of applications, prospects, and challenges for artificial intelligence, robotics and blockchain in higher education

Fourth industrial revolution—a review of applications, prospects, and challenges for artificial intelligence, robotics and blockchain in higher education

Leveraging MoyaMA, WhatsApp and Online Discussion Forum to Support Students at an Open and Distance e‑Learning University

Technological Intervention Through the Virtual Assistant Alexa in the Development of Linguistic Skills of a New Language

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