CASExplorer: A Conversational Academic and Career Advisor for College Students

Abstract

Choosing the right major is one of the most important steps for academic success for college students. However, making the right decision can be overwhelming caused by the lack of or too much information, especially for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors. The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and conversational agents, such as chatbots, has provided opportunities for assisting student learning. Originally used in messaging systems and customer service, chatbots have currently also been used in various fields such as health, human resources, and education. In this work in progress, we investigated the use of chatbots in higher education, especially in academic and career counseling services. We designed and implemented a chatbot called CASExplorer (career, academic, and self-explorer) to assist college students in STEM fields in learning about their majors and discovering related careers that match the students’ personality strengths.