Abstract
This research aims to explore the experience of chatbot use within academic advising from a humane design perspective. Although technology is a tool that facilitates people’s efforts across all industries, there is limited research that examines the potential negative impacts of emerging technology and whether or not a particular technology implementation is beneficial to its users. Humane Design is an approach to IT systems design that aims to support those wanting to prioritize human needs in human-computer interactions. The Centre for Humane Technology has defined Humane Design along six instinctive human sensitivities vulnerable to new technologies. These sensitivities are labelled: emotions, attention, sense-making, decision-making, social reasoning, and group dynamics (Humane Design Guide, 2020). This study provides contextual support for a theoretical frame of humane design within the context of education theory and previous chatbot research. The study then uses this framework to examine students’ experiences using a chatbot for academic advising. This mix-methods study examines whether chatbot use provides better information-seeking support than searching and using the navigation on a student support website. The hypothesis was that students would a) prefer using a chatbot, b) be more confident in the information they found, c) sense greater support of their human sensitivities d) take less time finding the answers than participants using the website. The results showed students preferred using a chatbot. Also, in three of the four scenarios, they did sense statistically significant greater support in one or more of the human sensitivities. However, the chatbot was not faster nor did it provide statistically different and better confidence scores in three of four scenarios.
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