CSU Consortium on Artificial Intelligence Chatbots for Student Success and Engagement

Recent research has proven that artificial intelligence helps mitigate summer melt at a large state university with a high proportion of traditionally underserved and first generation students (cite). Current research (at the lead campus in this proposal, funded by the Kresge Foundation) is further examining whether A.I. helps with additional student success outcomes, including retention, engagement, GPA, and social belonging, across different student demographics, and different levels of student achievement in high school and at community college. One critical factor in the use of this technology is that of noticeable increases in matriculation and retention can be achieved with a far lower expenditure of staff time, given the smart virtual assistant technology that we employed. Unburdened from answering thousands of frequently asked questions, admissions, advising, career counseling, and financial aid staff can redeploy their time on issues that only experienced counselors can solve. Moreover, the staff in these areas then have access to data from the virtual assistant (for students in the treatment group at CSUN) that allowed them greater insights into how to problem-solve with those students. CSUN launched its chatbot in Fall of 2018 (CSUNny) for the incoming FTF class. We are participating in a study run by the University of Pittsburgh, so half of our students are in the treatment group with access to the bot and the other half do not have access to it. The current CSUN project is primarily targeted at increasing retention, especially from the first semester to the second semester and from the first year to the second. This focus only scratches the surface of what artificial intelligence chatbots can do for comprehensive student support, both prior to enrollment and throughout the student and early alumni cycles. The proposed project would expand the use of artificial intelligence in student engagement on a number of fronts. We will implement seven chatbots?one at each new campus?for half to three-quarters of incoming students in the 2019, 2020, and 2021 classes. All campuses will have a control group for entering freshman in order to match the analysis with the ongoing CSUN project. In addition, all campuses will provide chatbot access to incoming first time transfer (FTT) students.