The chatbot ALIX’s job is to encourage students. As part of the SMARTA project, we’re looking to see if students come to the chat feeling motivated or not. We’re also trying to find out if chatting with ALIX changes their motivation levels. For example, a student might start the chat in a bad mood and not feel better after talking to ALIX. We call this a ‘Stagnation Spiral.’ Ideally, we want ALIX to help students who are feeling down become more motivated, which we call a ‘Motivation Reboot.’
Currently, we can measure the mood/sentiment of each chat and how it changes (!). We don’t know the users’ names, but we can analyze and record the chat’s sentiment. This lets us track how often something like a ‘Euphoria Decline’ occurs. Right now, the percentages in our matrix are just rough estimates. We’ll publish exact numbers in spring 2024.
