{"id":1531,"date":"2019-06-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/uncategorized\/lancaster-uni-enhances-student-engagement-cloud-based-chatbot\/"},"modified":"2025-02-28T14:38:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T14:38:27","slug":"lancaster-uni-enhances-student-engagement-cloud-based-chatbot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/lancaster-uni-enhances-student-engagement-cloud-based-chatbot\/","title":{"rendered":"Lancaster Uni enhances student engagement with cloud-based chatbot"},"content":{"rendered":"<header id=\"content-header\" class=\"main-article-header\">\n<p class=\"main-article-subtitle\">Lancaster University is using Amazon Web Services to enhance the development of a voice-enabled \u201conline companion\u201d with machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve student engagement.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"content-left\" class=\"content-left\">\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13295 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/university-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"university\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/>The university launched a trial of Ask LU, a chatbot running on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, delivered via mobile phones and Amazon smart speakers set up in the rooms of 150 students.<\/p>\n<p>The project, which included three full-time developers, two of them former students, is intended to improve communication with students in general while catering for the specific needs of freshers and students with disabilities such as dyslexia or visual impairments.<\/p>\n<p>Through the\u00a0voice\u00a0interface, students can get information about a range of subjects, from timetables, tutors and grades to how many PCs are available for use, whether a certain book is available at the library and how many washing machines are currently in use.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Dixon, head of IT partnering and innovation at the university, said the project was developed in recognition that students might not want to communicate with the university in traditional ways:\u00a0\u201cAsk LU can provide information to students who perhaps don\u2019t want face-to-face engagement in certain situations. Freshers might be embarrassed about asking where things are, while other students might not want to look up information on their mobiles as it can be a distraction when they are studying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The university will now use the AWS stack to introduce other functionalities such as the second phase of development, which will involve use of\u00a0artificial intelligence\u00a0and\u00a0machine learning\u00a0to get insights from data and plan meaningful interventions while enhancing learning experiences.\u00a0Future functionality could also include recorded voice feedback from tutors to accompany grades, as well as more digital services and more endpoints, including Facebook. If all goes well, the voice assistant could be available in up to 6,000 student bedrooms.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lancaster University is using Amazon Web Services to enhance the development of a voice-enabled \u201conline companion\u201d with machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve student engagement. The university launched a trial of Ask LU, a chatbot running on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, delivered via mobile phones and Amazon smart speakers set up in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,25,31],"tags":[112],"class_list":["post-1531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-services","category-tech-sparx","tag-lancaster"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lancaster Uni enhances student engagement with cloud-based chatbot - Regional technology news - North - TechSparx - Business technology stories in the North<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/lancaster-uni-enhances-student-engagement-cloud-based-chatbot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lancaster Uni enhances student engagement with cloud-based chatbot - Regional technology news - North - TechSparx - Business technology stories in the North\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lancaster University is using Amazon Web Services to enhance the development of a voice-enabled \u201conline companion\u201d with machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve student engagement. 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