Developing and evaluating of intervention with chatbot
Students in higher education face several challenges, related to (a) higher numbers in large classrooms (b) a lack of individual support and (c) changes in the curriculum. Research shows that students in higher education increasingly experience psychological complaints. The current model of mental health care in general, and the current system of study advisers and student psychologists in particular, is not designed for large numbers of students. A scalable solution for the prevention of wellness problems is online coaching and therapy.
In the proposed project an online coaching process using a chatbot will be added to an existing intervention, that has proved to work very well in terms of student well-being and study success, namely a goalsetting intervention (Schippers, Scheepers, & Peterson, 2015). The chatbot can offer customized personalized help. For students who don’t have many study problems, setting goals and online coaching might be enough. Students with more problems can profit from online cognitive behavioral therapy, and (with more serious complaints) referral to a study adviser or student psychologist.
Goal
This proposal is aimed at developing and evaluating an intervention that aims to improve student welfare and increase resilience and academic performance of students through a combination of setting goals, feedback by a digital coach and online coaching to follow up on the goals.
Result
When the project has finished, the results will be published.