Inspiration
My journey towards creating SIMBA (Student Interactive Mentoring Bot Assistant) began while pursuing my PhD in Computer Science, specializing in AI tools for supporting self-regulated learning in students. My initial work involved the use of dashboards, but I soon recognized their limitations: a lack of flexibility and constrained student interaction capabilities. Despite my enthusiasm for the new tools supporting student learning, I noticed they often missed a key element: the vital role of teachers in making education truly effective. I firmly believe that teachers are crucial for the future of education, and it's essential to keep them in the loop.
What it does
For Teachers: SIMBA offers a sophisticated platform where educators can easily create and review educational activities. With a user-friendly chatbot interface, teachers can initiate new activities, each with a unique Assistant tailored to the specific goals of the activity. The review process is equally streamlined, allowing educators to revisit past activities, analyze student conversations through AI summarization, and gain valuable insights into student engagement and comprehension.
For Students: The bot provides a personalized learning journey. Students interact with specific activities using unique IDs, ensuring each student's experience is tailored to their needs. The bot manages and adapts to student interactions, making the learning process more interactive and responsive.
Challenges we ran into
Several challenges, especially with the deployment of the tool. Mainly, there were issues with the access to some Microsoft tools that (I later found out) are now legacy tools.
What's next for SIMBA
To try to connect it with other educational services, such as Teams for Education. This could allow the bot to have a better understanding of the context of the class, as well as suggest more effective actions.
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