Tayseer: A Novel AI-Powered Arabic Chatbot Framework for Technical and Vocational Student Helpdesk Services and Enhancing Student Interactions

The rise of conversational agents (CAs) like chatbots in education has increased the demand for advisory services. However, student–college admission interactions remain manual and burdensome for staff. Leveraging CAs could streamline the admission process, providing efficient advisory support. More...

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Main Authors: Abeer Alabbas, Khalid Alomar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-03-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/6/2547
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author Abeer Alabbas
Khalid Alomar
author_facet Abeer Alabbas
Khalid Alomar
author_sort Abeer Alabbas
collection DOAJ
description The rise of conversational agents (CAs) like chatbots in education has increased the demand for advisory services. However, student–college admission interactions remain manual and burdensome for staff. Leveraging CAs could streamline the admission process, providing efficient advisory support. Moreover, limited research has explored the role of Arabic chatbots in education. This study introduces Tayseer, an Arabic AI-powered web chatbot that enables instant access to college information and communication between students and colleges. This study aims to improve the abilities of chatbots by integrating features into one model, including responding with audiovisuals, various interaction modes (menu, text, or both), and collecting survey responses. Tayseer uses deep learning models within the RASA framework, incorporating a customized Arabic natural language processing pipeline for intent classification, entity extraction, and response retrieval. Tayseer was deployed at the Technical College for Girls in Najran (TCGN). Over 200 students used Tayseer during the first semester, demonstrating its efficiency in streamlining the advisory process. It identified over 50 question types from inputs with a 90% precision in intent and entity predictions. A comprehensive evaluation illuminated Tayseer’s proficiency as well as areas requiring improvement. This study developed an advanced CA to enhance student experiences and satisfaction while establishing best practices for education chatbot interfaces by outlining steps to build an AI-powered chatbot from scratch using techniques adaptable to any language.
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spelling doaj.art-ccef05e21aba489ba930b8ce0da36dc32024-03-27T13:20:04ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172024-03-01146254710.3390/app14062547Tayseer: A Novel AI-Powered Arabic Chatbot Framework for Technical and Vocational Student Helpdesk Services and Enhancing Student InteractionsAbeer Alabbas0Khalid Alomar1Faculty of Computer and Information Technology, Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, Najran 66253, Saudi ArabiaFaculty of Computing and Information Technology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi ArabiaThe rise of conversational agents (CAs) like chatbots in education has increased the demand for advisory services. However, student–college admission interactions remain manual and burdensome for staff. Leveraging CAs could streamline the admission process, providing efficient advisory support. Moreover, limited research has explored the role of Arabic chatbots in education. This study introduces Tayseer, an Arabic AI-powered web chatbot that enables instant access to college information and communication between students and colleges. This study aims to improve the abilities of chatbots by integrating features into one model, including responding with audiovisuals, various interaction modes (menu, text, or both), and collecting survey responses. Tayseer uses deep learning models within the RASA framework, incorporating a customized Arabic natural language processing pipeline for intent classification, entity extraction, and response retrieval. Tayseer was deployed at the Technical College for Girls in Najran (TCGN). Over 200 students used Tayseer during the first semester, demonstrating its efficiency in streamlining the advisory process. It identified over 50 question types from inputs with a 90% precision in intent and entity predictions. A comprehensive evaluation illuminated Tayseer’s proficiency as well as areas requiring improvement. This study developed an advanced CA to enhance student experiences and satisfaction while establishing best practices for education chatbot interfaces by outlining steps to build an AI-powered chatbot from scratch using techniques adaptable to any language.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/6/2547Arabic chatbotRASAtransformer modelDIETvocational education
spellingShingle Abeer Alabbas
Khalid Alomar
Tayseer: A Novel AI-Powered Arabic Chatbot Framework for Technical and Vocational Student Helpdesk Services and Enhancing Student Interactions
Applied Sciences
Arabic chatbot
RASA
transformer model
DIET
vocational education
title Tayseer: A Novel AI-Powered Arabic Chatbot Framework for Technical and Vocational Student Helpdesk Services and Enhancing Student Interactions
title_full Tayseer: A Novel AI-Powered Arabic Chatbot Framework for Technical and Vocational Student Helpdesk Services and Enhancing Student Interactions
title_fullStr Tayseer: A Novel AI-Powered Arabic Chatbot Framework for Technical and Vocational Student Helpdesk Services and Enhancing Student Interactions
title_full_unstemmed Tayseer: A Novel AI-Powered Arabic Chatbot Framework for Technical and Vocational Student Helpdesk Services and Enhancing Student Interactions
title_short Tayseer: A Novel AI-Powered Arabic Chatbot Framework for Technical and Vocational Student Helpdesk Services and Enhancing Student Interactions
title_sort tayseer a novel ai powered arabic chatbot framework for technical and vocational student helpdesk services and enhancing student interactions
topic Arabic chatbot
RASA
transformer model
DIET
vocational education
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/6/2547
work_keys_str_mv AT abeeralabbas tayseeranovelaipoweredarabicchatbotframeworkfortechnicalandvocationalstudenthelpdeskservicesandenhancingstudentinteractions
AT khalidalomar tayseeranovelaipoweredarabicchatbotframeworkfortechnicalandvocationalstudenthelpdeskservicesandenhancingstudentinteractions