We always knew that the millennial era would bring in a lot of digitalization, including in the education industry. However, what we might not have foreseen was the extent to which technology would define how modern schools and universities work.
In specific, college inquiry chatbots have generated ripples in the higher education sector, changing the way students communicate with their universities. Campus Technology has evolved from being non-existant at one point to using AI tools to automate several tasks- thanks to chatbots.
Every university needs a college inquiry chatbot. Here’s why.
Every campus needs a campus guide. At the start of any academic year, newly enrolled students have a long list of queries- “What are college timings”, “Where is the gym?”, “When does the library open?” and so on.
What this suggests is that the staff and faculty employees of the university are weighed down with the increased responsibility of showing the ladders to new students and answering the very same series of questions at the early stages of every educational year. That’s essentially why campus guides are needed by universities. And the advancement of the college chatbot inquiry has created the ultimate solution.
Over the past couple of years, leading colleges and universities around the world have created chatbots for their websites to investigate university. These chatbots will work as round-the-clock campus guides and recruit multiple human employees at a fraction of the cost. They are also much more straightforward than human representatives because they don’t need to be supervised by students. All they need to do is open the website of the university and type their request into the chatbot.
The college inquiry chatbot gives them an instant and an on-point response, without the human representatives providing vague answers or just be like — “I don’t know, check with someone else.”
The whole process of inquiry and solutions can be repeated over and over again, with a lot of students and it’ll always be just as effective as the first time.
College inquiry chatbots guide students to the correct information sources.
Colleges usually have a bustling amount of students, all lining up outside the administration office to get various information. Each student comes in with a different query, be it regarding their course, class timings, fees, etc. Now in this process, the faculty has to type out the student’s name, or register number to find the necessary information and then pass it onto the student. This must be the single most time-consuming process that happens on the regular at colleges, and something that could be made so much easier with automation in hand. Traditionally, students could get clarification from anyone who has been on campus for quite a while-a senior student, a resident associate to the dorm, or a professor. But with very specific issues, they need help a lot of the time and don’t know who to ask. And those are the situations where chatbots are becoming even more important for college inquiry.
Colleges that make a chatbot answer student inquiries produce a more streamlined process of exchange of information instantly. Students from any year don’t have to spend time trying to figure out who to address their peculiar queries. The inquiry chatbot of the college will take their concerns and show them the way.
Example 1:
Chatbot — “Hello! Welcome to our student portal. How may I help you?”
Student — “I want to join the football team, where can I find the application form?”
Chatbot- “The football team is inviting freshers to join them for this match season. Here’s an application you can fill out to apply . There’ll be a test held on 12th December, from 9 AM to 2:30 PM.
Student- “Alright.”
Chatbot- “May I help with anything else?”
Student- “No, that’ll do.”
Example 2:
Chatbot- “Hey, welcome to our college portal chatbot. Please choose one of the below to access the required information- Enrollments, Payments, Campus, Exams, Time Tables, IT Support, Personal Arena, About Us .”
Student- “I want to know the schedule of my time table”
Chatbot- “Here’s your yearly timetable (link to the PDF file).
Example 3:
Student: “I have opted for the annual fee payment option. I’d like to find out if I can convert that into monthly installments for the next 6 months.”
Chatbot: “You can send an email to our Finance department on [email ID]. You can also meet them in person at [Building], between 9:00hrs and 16:00hrs Monday through Friday.”
College inquiry chatbots are not time-bound and take universities beyond time differences.
One of the best features of a chatbot- It’s available through day and night, 365 days a year! Universities taking applications from students abroad should be prepared to respond to their inquiries and concerns outside working hours. Building chatbots is a cost-effective and practical way to do anything.
Using chatbots on the homepage of a college, foreign students can log in and ask questions about their student visas, fee payment options, and educational concerns at any time. In case of tailor-made inquiries that the chatbot is not scheduled to reply, the student can create a booking with their request and somebody from the department concerned with the university can update them back after a day or two.
With more and more colleges opening their doors to enrollments abroad and student exchange programs, this simple but effective feature is a big step towards a tech-savvy and diverse community where every student feels secure.
Chatbots updates and alerts throughout the semester.
Chatbots are able to assist the students not just at the start of the academic year. Colleges and universities can use them throughout the semester to update students of university exams, community activities, and events. This may take two directions. Students can request information from the chatbot by asking questions such as:
“When is my research submission due date?” When does the mid-term begin? “What’s my next couple of weeks’ schedule?”
Similarly, it is possible to include essential reminders and updates in the initial response of the chatbot itself. For example, when the due date for the thesis papers is approaching, the chatbot could present students with a message such as:
“Hey, welcome! Please write down your question below. Important reminder: by Thursday, 24 July, all thesis papers for [topics] are due. Late entries may be subject to fines.”
Or sections such as “Important events” and “Timetable” may be added to the chat window dropdown menu, so students can easily obtain them.
College inquiry chatbots have been able to assist students throughout their tenure and revolutionalized the way educational institutions around the world operate.
To build a chatbot for your university, visit Engati.
For more information on chatbot tech, here are a few blogs.
Thanks for reading!
Originally published at https://blog.engati.com on December 16, 2019.
