A new initiative by the CSUMB administration, Monte ChatBot, has been sending messages out to CSUMB students since late August, aiming to assess students wellness.
Each week it has sent a question to gauge students’ comfortability with courses so far. According to the faculty on Friday, September 26, at a town hall meeting assessing the use of A.I. in our administration, the idea is to send more questions to those in the first year, rather than those in upper divisions so they feel more connected to the school. As the semester progresses it will continue asking questions, but will also send out reminders and helpful resources to students.
The answers given to Monte ChatBot are not anonymous. This is done with the goal being that faculty will follow up with students after initial questions and answers with the chatbot. Vanya Quiñones, president of CSUMB and speaker of the town hall, verifies that there are technically seven to eight Monte’s that are designated for specific services, so they will sort through the type of problems students bring to Monte ChatBot.
Those services include academics which makes it easier for faculty members to respond to certain concerns from students. However, the administration does not want to target specific faculty members when it comes to students’ concerns, they want to guide them towards more resources – such as a tutor. It is not limited to academics though Monte also covers housing and financial aid concerns.
97% of students are still receiving the messages, and there has been between 1,000 to 2,000 replies from students each week it is sent out. Faculty believe that it is important for the students to be passive users of the chatbot rather than opt out of the service because it will be a constant reminder of important information for students. When applications for classes or FAFSA is approaching the chatbot will send out reminders to students to apply and faculty is hoping that it increases punctual applications.
Monte ChatBot is a traditional form of artificial intelligence, which means it can only give information to students that is accessible on the CSUMB website. It can not scrape the internet for answers to students’ questions, it is scripted on preexisting data and does not generate new content or change tone based on the user.
The administration is pushing for more uses of artificial intelligence to ease the faculty’s workload, not substitute it in any way. Monte ChatBot will continue to be a reality for students in the hopes it betters their experience at CSUMB.