No doubt about it, students on today’s college campuses are utilizing their mobile devices for a wide variety of uses: information gathering, communications, file sharing, recreational pursuits and much more. Chatbots, by design, fit into this landscape by simulating conversations in order to provide relevant and timely information, often delivered via text messaging. Instructors can leverage this practice to provide students with important course-related information and communications, automatically giving students what they need, when they need it. As a result, it can decrease the amount of time instructors spend reminding students of organizational matters or communicating last minute course changes.
A tool we recently met is the locally-grown CourseQ chatbot, which can be used by students to track assignments, participate in classroom polling exercises, get timely access to course documents and more.
The CourseQ messaging platform built here in Ithaca, can be used by professors and students in the classroom as well as by other groups on campus such as student clubs, sports teams, alumni groups and academic departments. Use it for tracking assignments, classroom polling, group notifications and more, all via text messages on the go.
The CourseQ team is currently looking for beta testers. If you are an instructor who might be interested in deploying CourseQ into your class, contact them at support@courseq.io for a demo.
“In class today, when the power went out, the CourseQ polls were the only thing that worked. The class got a laugh out of how nothing could stop CourseQ.”
—Professor Michael Giebelhausen, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University
