Using chatbot as a goal-setting facilitator in an online course: students’ performance and teacher’s perception

Many institutions have been adopting a fully online teaching and learning mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This requires a high level of self-regulation from students. Students’ goal-setting skills play a key role in their self-regulated learning, especially at the beginning stage of learning. This study explored the use of a chatbot to guide students to set learning goals for an online undergraduate course. The social presence framework was adopted to facilitate students’ interaction with the goal-setting chatbot. A mixed-method case study design was used to evaluate students’ behavioral engagement, perceived social presence, goal-setting, and their level of satisfaction with the chatbot. The results indicated students’ positive goal-setting experience with the chatbot. Moreover, their degree of satisfaction with the chatbot significantly influenced the learning goals they set for the online course. Students’ and teacher’s interviews were conducted to gain insights into future chatbot design.