Educational chatbots for project-based learning: investigating learning outcomes for a team-based design course

Educational chatbots (ECs) are chatbots designed for pedagogical purposes and are viewed as an Internet of Things (IoT) interface that could revolutionize teaching and learning. These chatbots are strategized to provide personalized learning through the concept of a virtual assistant that replicates humanized conversation. Nevertheless, in the education paradigm, ECs are still novel with challenges in facilitating, deploying, designing, and integrating it as an effective pedagogical tool across multiple fields, and one such area is project-based learning. Therefore, the present study investigates how integrating ECs to facilitate team-based projects for a design course could influence learning outcomes. Based on a mixed-method quasi-experimental approach, ECs were found to improve learning performance and teamwork with a practical impact. Moreover, it was found that ECs facilitated collaboration among team members that indirectly influenced their ability to perform as a team. Nevertheless, affective-motivational learning outcomes such as perception of learning, need for cognition, motivation, and creative self-efficacy were not influenced by ECs. Henceforth, this study aims to add to the current body of knowledge on the design and development of EC by introducing a new collective design strategy and its pedagogical and practical implications.