Through the winter, the ‘Exploring the Teacher Function: Continuing Interventions in Automated Teaching’ project has been working towards the development of new bots.
The project has, from the start, sought to work closely with the broader university to centre on a community-driven approach to educational technology. Based on a range of workshops and interviews with academics, staff and students, we have been able to identify a wide range of use cases that the University community think would be valuable in teaching. The project has emphasised throughout that this is technology research and development by and for the University of Edinburgh community: students, staff, and faculty.
More recently, we have centred our attention on choosing the most interesting use cases and started preparing to build and pilot some of these bots for further discussions and iterations. This has required a careful assessment of each use case including considering to what extent the bots were pedagogically generative and would augment the teacher function or add something new to it. Moreover, we also considered to what extent the bots would speak to the values of the University that were surfaced during the Near Future Teaching project (2017-2019); if they would positively influence the student and teaching experience; the ethical implications of each bot; if they would support (rather than replace or undermine) the teacher identify as a professional; and, if they were technologically feasible. This selection process has taken place in close collaboration with Information Services Group and a range of advisory boards and committees.
Through this process we have chosen six bots that we are seeking to develop further. Currently, we are working with academics across the University’s three colleges to build and test the bots. While the Covid19 pandemic has shifted many people’s attention to online teaching, the crisis has also made it clear that the bots can be valuable tools in managing an increasing online University presence. Among the bots we are developing, the 'onboarding' bot for new students and the 'grouping' bot used to facilitate group work in large classes are examples of how new technology can support teachers at this challenging time.
We are planning to test the first bots in the autumn term and are excited to see how users respond to them. If the tests are successful, we expect to expand and introduce these and other bots to a wider range of courses and schools.
- Dr Markus Breines, Research Associate