AI Chatbots for E-Learning & Why They Matter

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Olha Kanishcheva ML/NLP Engineer, Researcher

Almost everyone has had experience with online learning. It may have been a corporate training course, an attempt to learn a language using online platforms or apps, or even while getting a higher education. Sure, online learning is highly convenient: you can take your classes anywhere and any time that suits you. 

The use of online education is growing yearly: the global e-learning market is forecast to reach almost USD 400 billion in 2026, up from USD 198 billion in 2019. 

But how can you ensure high-level support and personalization without stretching your resources, including time, money, and effort? This is where AI chatbots for e-learning come into play. CHI Software, as a pro in the field of AI chatbot development services, is here to explain everything about this topic, from the benefits your business will gain after chatbot integration in e-learning, through to the implementation process.

Article Highlights:

• AI chatbots guarantee that your students have access to help anytime, day or night, without needing a large support team;
• The chatbot developed by CHI Software can automatically evaluate students’ essays and provide instant feedback, empowering teachers to create and customize assessment questions for various subjects like IT, software development, and business;
• With more than half of college students reporting anxiety and depression, chatbots can help by sending motivational messages, celebrating achievements, and offering tips on how to maintain mental health.

The Game-Changing Benefits of Chatbots in E-Learning

E-learning platforms are quickly becoming the backbone of modern education, offering students and professionals a flexible and accessible way to gain knowledge. But what exactly do users and companies get if they use chatbots in the e-learning industry?

How chatbots in e-learning can change education for the better

24/7 Availability

A chatbot is a tool that can help you stay in touch with your users at all times so you don’t need to hire a huge support team. Day and night, your e-learning chatbot is ready to answer questions, help learners with explanations, resources, or additional practice exercises, add reminders, or even reschedule classes.

The best part is that you define the chatbot functions yourself, while experts providing custom chatbot development services bring your vision to life. Working together, you can easily create an assistant that can handle tasks after hours or during the holidays. 

Cost-Effective Support

You’ve probably already guessed that a digital tool like a chatbot is much more cost-effective in the long run than maintaining a full-time customer support team. And it’s true: by using chatbots in e-learning, you can reduce costs and increase efficiency at the same time.

For example, a knowledge base chatbot can manage repetitive tasks within seconds by answering frequently asked questions and helping with onboarding. That’s how an integrated chatbot reduces your team’s workload and frees up resources to create an unrivalled learning experience.

20+ Chatbot Use Cases for Different Industries Continue reading

Learning That Feels Real

It’s common for users to lose interest in learning part of the way through a lesson – and chatbots can help even here. CHI Software has previously developed an interactive chatbot integrated with an animated 2D character. Thanks to AI and the GPT model, the application character evolves over time, learns, and incorporates new vocabulary. 

Using animated characters is much more exciting than the typical static e-learning tools, right? But engagement is not just about fun, it’s about results. An e-learning chatbot gives students a reason and an opportunity to stick with it longer and continue to learn more.

Learner-Centric Approach

No two learners are alike, and your e-learning platform should reflect this diversity. AI chatbots for e-learning can offer updates on modules completed, assessments, and milestones based on the collected data. 

Moreover, chatbots can provide personalized recommendations, such as suggesting additional resources, practice exercises, or targeted lessons to strengthen specific skills. For a better understanding of students’ progress, chatbots give real-time feedback and help learners track areas of difficulty. 

Multilingual Support

In addition to overcoming time barriers, a chatbot for online learning also copes with language barriers – they offer multilingual support and make your platform or app accessible to learners worldwide. Whether someone needs help in Spanish, Chinese, or French, an integrated chatbot can help.

Want to know how chatbots can transform your business? Our experts know the answer and have the needed expertise! Let's talk!

Want to know how chatbots can transform your business? Let’s talk!

Top Chatbot Use Cases in E-Learning

But how to use chatbots for online education to achieve all the benefits we’ve mentioned? Here are several use cases backed up with real-market case studies.

Using chatbots in e-learning can revolutionize both educational and administrative tasks.

Course Assistance

Educational chatbots can be a lifesaver when students need help understanding a course’s structure, are in need of feedback, or have topic-specific questions. They can also suggest personalized plans of study and  revolutionize each user’s virtual learning experience. 

A world-famous example is Duolingo. During the learning process, each user has a virtual owl friend who communicates with them, asks about their aims, tells them about the next steps, and answers their questions.

Simplifying Administrative Tasks

The e-learning process includes course registrations and deadline tracking, which can be overwhelming for both the learners and the team. Who can handle these tasks more efficiently and with ease? Chatbots, of course. For example, chatbot integration with CRM makes the routine easy by providing detailed information about schedules, assignments, deadlines, and payments.

How to Set Up an AI Recommendation Engine for Personalization Read more

Interactive Learning Experience

Using chatbots in e-learning means providing the highest quality feedback to students: users will be able to see incorrect answers and access the most extensive analysis of their work. Furthermore, a chatbot integrated with other databases will adjust the difficulty of quizzes and assignments depending on the user’s results.

CHI Software has built an AI chatbot for education that can evaluate students’ essays and help tutors generate assessment questions.

A chatbot for educational institutions developed by CHI Software automatically evaluates students’ essays using predefined criteria and providing feedback. In addition, the chatbot empowers teachers to generate assessment questions for various topics, including IT, software development, and business, and customize questions for different educational purposes.

Ready to boost student engagement? Let’s build your chatbot together! Contact us

Real-Time Problem Solving

If students are stuck on a topic or have specific questions, chatbots for e-learning can become tutors 24/7. For example, if a student doesn’t understand a term, the chatbot can break it down into simple and easy-to-understand points, which helps students to keep going and feel that they always have an AI tutor by their side. 

A striking example is the Pearson+ AI tutor. The company has integrated artificial intelligence into its learning platforms, and now, a chatbot offers real-time problem-solving support and immediate feedback on almost any kind of assignment.

Providing Emotional Support and Motivation

Studying is often stressful, so students need encouragement or just moral support. In 2018, more than half of college students reported being too depressed to function. Statistics for 2023 show that anxiety and depression are at the top of the list among college students, so it’s no surprise that students are actively seeking help and support. 

The use of chatbots in education can significantly improve the situation. Chatbots can not only send motivational messages and celebrate achievements, but also monitor and give advice on maintaining mental health.

This idea isn’t just theoretical. Back in 2017, Woebot Health saw the potential of chatbots in the mental care field and created a virtual assistant that can communicate and provide sound emotional support to reduce stress and anxiety.

Reporting on Progress and Collecting Feedback

Progress tracking is a primary driver of student motivation, so it is a crucial factor. Chatbots track progress, identify areas for improvement, and send reports to students or their teachers. 

For example, a chatbot from the platform Knowre Math can identify which skills a student needs to work on and offer practice tasks to improve their score and knowledge.

A chatbot for online learning can also collect and send feedback from students, which is the main motivation for business development. Therefore, both parties benefit at the same time.

Your Guide to Implementing Chatbots for E-Learning: 6 Steps Before Vendor Selection

You’ve learned about the advantages and opportunities of using a chatbot for the e-learning industry; what’s next? The next step is selecting a reliable partner for successful implementation, so take a moment to prepare. To make the selection process easier and ensure you pick the right partner, we’ve created a handy checklist.

Consider these steps before building your AI chatbot for education.

1. Understand Your Goals 

Before looking for a vendor, ask yourself why you need a chatbot and what issues and processes you need it to cover. Defining clear goals will help you find the right partners and subsequently speed up the chatbot development process for your future development team, as they will clearly understand your expectations.

2. Analyze Your Audience

The chatbot’s effectiveness depends on understanding who will use it. Are you targeting tech-savvy students, adult learners, or teachers? If you know your audience, you can shape your chatbot’s tone, functionality, and features.

Need some help with project discovery? Your research is easy with CHI Software Leave us a message

3. Determine Your Budget

Remember that the cost to build a chatbot is not fixed. Your investment may vary greatly depending on the tool’s features and its integration ecosystem. Having a clear budget in advance will help you weed out several companies that don’t meet your financial requirements.

When budgeting, you should include long-term maintenance and upgrades, as technology, user needs, and your company all continue to evolve daily.

4. Create a Map of Key Features

Think about what features your chatbot should have. Start with a list of the core features essential to your business. For example:

• Multilingual support: If your audience spans different regions, your chatbot should communicate in multiple languages in order to cater to various user groups;
• Integration with CRM: Connection to your customer database will provide valuable insights into user interactions;
• Advanced analytics: Custom reporting or data segmentation will be helpful if you want to track response time, popular questions, and engagement rates.

Learn More About Essential Chatbot Requirements for AI Projects Continue reading

5. Evaluate Your Technical Ecosystem

Chatbots don’t work in isolation. You must review your current tech stack (server capacity, data storage, and security protocols) to ensure your chatbot can integrate seamlessly with your systems. Discuss this matter with your technical team.

6. Plan for Scalability

From day one of your chatbot implementation, you should keep scalability in mind, as your chatbot needs to keep up with the growth of your platform. Scalability is important when planning development because engineers need to build a chatbot architecture with a modular structure for greater flexibility, as well as using cloud computing to handle more data.

If this path seems too complicated for you, don’t worry! CHI Software is here to help you with any questions you may have. If you can’t define your audience or analyze your tech ecosystem, we are happy to introduce our IT consulting services and outstanding business analysis team.

Conclusion

You can make the learning experience much more engaging, learner-centric, and accessible anytime: AI chatbots for education turn this vision into reality and transform the way learners communicate and develop.

So, why settle for ordinary when your platform could inspire, empower, and truly connect with learners? If you are ready to begin or want to discuss more workflow details – reach out to CHI Software today and let us build a chatbot tailored to your goals.

About the author

Olha Kanishcheva ML/NLP Engineer, Researcher

Olha boasts a decade-long journey in NLP, currently serving as a researcher at Jena University and a Consulting ML/NLP Engineer at CHI Software. Her expertise extends to various realms of NLP, including text summarization, named entity recognition, and keyword extraction. Olha's Ph.D. thesis explored knowledge representations and information retrieval in librarian systems.