intelligent agents in desire2learn

Customizing learning with Intelligent Agents

Dr Jaclyn Broadbent (jaqi@deakin.edu.au)

Intelligent agents?

• Allow you to provide quick and automated

notification

• Increases communication between instructor and

student

• Personalized message

• Send links to other resources, eLive recording,

websites etc. to students

Three simple steps. You need to tell the IA:

1. What criteria it is looking for

2. When it looks

3. What is sent in the email

Engage students not logging on to D2L regularly

To inspire high achievers

To motivate low achievers

What other criteria can

I use?

Where are IA?

Automatic Vs. manually run

Automatic

Pro:• Set it up and don’t think

about it again.

Con:• Have to make sure it is set

up for the right dates – will it capture everyone?

Manually

Pro:• Runs straight away• Easier to set up

Con:• You have to remember to

do it!

What’s the Catch?For a student to receive an email via IA they need to DO something. There would be added benefit to send reminders to complete a quiz (for example) when they haven’t.

• You can not create an agent that looks at overall user progress or final grade

• Technical difficulties– Not getting the {InitiatingUserFirstName} right– Not setting up calendar correctly

• Don’t want to send too many.• Student’s cant reply - Include your email in CC• If you're copying components from one

trimester to another, each Intelligent Agent will be copied over, BUT the settings of each agent will not be copied.

Student Survey (n=309)

Strongly Disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0

4

7

41

48

These emails motivate me to do well in the next assessment piece or to log on to CloudDeakin more

often %

Strongly Disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0 04

26

70

These emails made me feel that the Unit Team cared about how I

was progressing in the unit %

The emails were fantastic as it made me really feel the teaching team were there anytime we needed them and were keeping an eye on our progress, it truly did motivate me to continue to pursue high marks.

I was so happy with the first journal email I got, that I even sent it to my parents.

Made me feel that someone acknowledged my achievements and cared, made me feel included and special.

It made my self esteem go through the roof and I felt extra proud.

[The email] encouragement goes a long was especially when things are getting a bit overwhelming.

It definitely made me feel better about my results and made me want to do better the next time.

Good for Retention!Percentage of Student attrition after census in HBS110 (n=1723), HPS111 (n=1180), HPS121 (n= 1083) includes late withdrawals, XN and F

Percentage of Student completion after census in HBS110 (n=1723), HPS111 (n=1180), HPS121 (n= 1083) includes late withdrawals, XN and F

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

10

19

21

HBS110

HPS111

HPS121

75

77

79

81

83

85

87

89

91 90

81

79

HBS110

HPS111

HPS121

Any Questions?