Chatbot Feedback on Students’ Writing: Typology of Comments and Effectiveness

Abstract

Providing feedback is time-consuming. A chatbot has the potential to facilitate provision of detailed feedback saving instructors time and energy. However, the effectiveness of chatbot feedback has not been determined. In this study, chatbot end-comments on 28 students’ written papers were classified by topic and function. The comments were further evaluated for whether they reflected the five characteristics of effective feedback. Results demonstrated the ability of the chatbot to provide a variety of comments. The characteristics of these comments nevertheless, did not seem to reflect feedback best practices. The study provides recommendations for further chatbot feedback research, and in particular calls for more partnership between artificial intelligence developers and writing researchers.