AI-Powered Chatbots as Emotion-Aware Virtual Assistants: Enhancing Student Support and Engagement in Higher Education

Abstract

The increasing complexities in higher education in addition to the increase in class sizes have motivated the need for scalable, responsive, and human like solutions for students' support. Chatbots empowered by AI have recently emerged as promising supplements to the current learning systems. This study focuses on the design, development, and pedagogical outcomes of emotion-aware chatbot used as a Virtual Teaching Assistant (VTA). The proposed VTA goes beyond providing instant answers for frequently asked questions to utilizing natural language processing to be able to ascertain cues related to students' emotional status. Based on the ascertained emotions, the proposed agent will adjust its responses with explanations and descriptions that provide encouragement and reinsurance. The agent also can escalate and involve the instructor when needed. To that extent, we utilize a mixed methodology that involves analysing data from student feedback surveys combined with agent interaction logs to assess related aspects such as engagement, usefulness, emotional support, and learning experience. Preliminary analysis suggests that interacting with the agent positively influences student satisfaction, reduces frustration, and enhances perceived accessibility to academic support.

Keywords: Emotion-aware AI, emotional chatbots, virtual teaching assistant, affective computing, human–AI interaction, higher education

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007181