Exploring the role of chatbots and messaging applications in higher education: a teacher’s perspective

The use of new technologies such as messaging applications and chatbots in higher education is rapidly growing in Western countries. This entails a careful consideration of the potential opportunities and/or challenges of adopting these tools. Hence, a comprehensive examination of the teachers’ opinions and needs in this discipline can shed light on the effective ways of enhancing students’ learning and boosting their progress. In this contribution, we have surveyed the opinions of instructors based in Spain (mainly) and Spanish-speaking countries. Specifically, we aimed to collect teachers’ feedback about their opinions regarding the introduction of the messaging platforms and chatbots in their classes, understand their needs and to collect information about the various educational use cases where these tools are valuable. In addition, an analysis of how and when teachers’ opinions towards the use of these tools can vary across gender, experience, and their discipline of specialization is presented. The key findings of this study highlight the factors that can contribute to the advancement of the adoption of messaging platforms and Chabots in higher education institutions to achieve the desired learning outcomes.