AI Chatbots in Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges for Personalized and Mobile Learning

Abstract

The landscape of higher education is increasingly shaped by the integration of innovative tools such as chatbots, which offer promising solutions to enhance e-learning experiences. As conversational agents, chatbots are being adopted to address challenges in e-learning environments, including low student engagement and lack of personalized support. This literature review explores the current state of e-learning chatbots in higher education, with a particular focus on mobile learning environment. It aims to investigate how these tools contribute to personalize learning, the opportunities they present, and the key limitations and challenges they face. We conducted a comprehensive review of 815 publications from 2018 to 2024 across three major digital databases: Scopus, IEEE Xplore, and Science direct. From these, 39 studies were selected for in-depth analysis. Findings reveal that chatbots enhance personalized learning by adapting content and feedback based on various learner-specific features. In addition, chatbots are particularly effective when integrated into mobile applications and powered by AI technologies. Results show further that e-learning chatbots in higher education support a wide range of educational tasks from language learning to personalized guidance. Despite these advancements, significant challenges need to be addressed, including the technical limitations of both rule-based and AI-based chatbots. These challenges highlight the need for continued research aimed at improving chatbot capabilities. This review aims to inspire and support the effective integration of chatbots in higher education by offering concrete insights for instructors, developers, and researchers.