Oct 28, 2019

CSU Fullerton Creates Virtual Assistant to Engage Students for Success

California State University Fullerton has created a virtual assistant that can answer common questions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Students can talk to the assistant as though they were talking to a real person. Through an app on their smartphone or through Amazon Alexa smart speakers placed around campus, students can ask general questions such as, “Where is the financial aid office?” or “When does the student union close?”

By funneling these straight-forward questions to the automated assistant, CSU Fullerton’s small counseling staff can focus instead on assisting students on complex matters. The innovative service is designed to boost student engagement, student success, and, ultimately, student graduation rates. “The goal is to make life easier for students,” said Amir Dabirian, vice president for information technology at CSUF. Dabirian shared the university’s success story at CENIC’s 2019 Conference.

Virtual assistants are one use of an artificial intelligence system that requires a robust, reliable, and secure Internet connection. CENIC’s fiber-optic network provides CSUF with a high-bandwidth, low-latency connection to IBM Cloud’s Watson Assistant service, which is the brain of the university’s automated assistant. The cloud service is constantly accessed with dialogue requests, and a resilient and reliable connection to the Internet ensures that accurate information is provided to the campus community. CENIC offers a full and feature-rich suite of cloud services for its member institutions, and its high-quality, direct interconnection to these remote virtual data centers is another example of the value CENIC provides in bringing together the state’s research and education communities to share resources and expertise and to benefit from economies of scale.

CSUF is one of nine CSU campuses selected in 2018 to receive a new high-speed, 100-Gbps connection to CENIC’s California Research and Education Network (CalREN). To understand the power of the upgrade, a single streaming HD video consumes five megabits per second; the new 100-gigabit capacity can handle 20,000 streaming videos concurrently — a 10-fold increase from the bandwidth previously available on these campuses.

Helping Students Manage College Life

CSUF’s virtual assistant is called iTuffy, named after CSUF’s mascot, an elephant named Tuffy the Titan. iTuffy can answer general questions covering campus facilities and support services, including the advising office’s most frequently asked questions, basic financial aid information, the hours of operation of campus services and area businesses, details about campus events, and the location of buildings around campus. Alexa devices have been placed in dorms, libraries, the advising center, and the student union.

iTuffy can also use text to respond to student inquiries. If students log in on a personal device, they can access basic student-specific information such as their student identification number and grade point average. Personal information is not available through voice services.

Students can also schedule advising appointments through iTuffy when needed. Prior to implementing the virtual assistant, CSUF’s small advising office was overwhelmed with basic requests.

iTuffy is most heavily used at the start of classes, when new students arrive on campus and when students get new schedules. Last school year, students held 1,500 conversations with iTuffy on the first day of class, about 4,000 conversations in the first week of the semester, and a total of about 10,000 conversations during the first month of classes. “We get a burst at the beginning of the semester and then it slows down as students get used to campus,” said Dabirian. “The goal is to provide a really positive initial experience for students.”

Maximizing Digital Technologies

iTuffy is among new technology-enabled programs at CSUF to improve student engagement in support of the Graduation Initiative 2025. With an enrollment of more than 40,000 students, CSUF has the largest student body in the 23-campus CSU system. About 43% of CSUF students are underrepresented populations, 67% receive financial aid, and 58% are the first generation in their family to attend college. “We have a lot of students who are all three,” Dabirian said. “We call these students triple opportunities and we are really keen on how to help them be successful.”

Since many students are digital natives, they want to be able to use their smartphones to get their questions answered. “What are the things that we can do for them to help them be engaged by using the devices of their choice?” said Berhanu Tadesse, associate vice president for IT at CSUF. “This is the method of communication that they want.” Aligned with the university’s overall strategic plan, CSUF’s Division of Information Technology has goals that include empowering students, faculty, and staff with technology-based solutions that promote curricular success. Related tactics maximize the use of digital technologies and mobile connectivity so that the campus community can easily collaborate and have instant access to information and resources.

Leveraging Robotic Process Automation (RPA), implementing software automation such as iTuffy, has helped CSUF streamline enterprise operations and reduce costs. “We can automate basic passive tasks to help staff be more efficient,” Tadesse said. “We’re not going to be able to eliminate jobs. We can eliminate tasks, but we are not going to eliminate jobs.” CSUF hired a consultant and trainer to teach the CSUF IT staff to implement the virtual assistant. A newly created position, a chatbot coordinator, ensures the assistant is providing up-to-date information. As part of a CSU-wide initiative, CSUF is working on a skill to enable the assistant to answer general questions about all 23 CSU campuses.

Watch Dabirian and Tadesse’s panel discussion, "Leveraging Robotic Process Automation to Improve Student Engagement," at CENIC's 2019 Conference.

Related Content

• EdTech: Universities Deploy Chatbots to Aid Students in the Admissions Process and Beyond
• Inside Higher Ed: University Deploys Chatbot Technology to Enhance Student Experience
• The Newest Job in Higher Education: College Chatbot Manager
• CIO Quick Takes Featuring CSU Fullerton: How CIOs Assess the Value of Emerging Technology
• Four Chatbot Tips Perfect for College Students

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