A little robot icon in Northwestern purple was embedded in Canvas. Clicking on the icon started the chatbot, which could answer student and instructor questions and point them to key resources. The chatbot increased user engagement with IT support and expanded the user base from being mostly faculty—who submit the majority of learning management system (LMS) support tickets—to include students, who seemed comfortable interacting with a chatbot. Likely because of this, the chatbot did not reduce the number of support requests; in fact, it seemed to increase them. The Canvas chatbot has been a successful experiment in the use of AI-based technology that resulted not only in better support for users—more immediate, and with an increased user base—but also in efficiencies for IT support.
