Rebo at Work: Reflecting on Working, Learning, and Learning Goals with the Reflection Guidance Chatbot for Apprentices

Abstract

In Rebo at Work, chatbot Rebo helps apprentices to reflect on a work experience and associate it with their training's learning objectives. Rebo poses questions that motivate the apprentice to look at a work experience from different angles, pondering how it went, the problems they encountered, what they learned from it, and what they take away for the future. We present preliminary results of a 9-month field study (analysis of 90 interactions of the first 6 months) with 51 apprentices in the fields of metal technology, mechatronics, and electrical engineering. During reflection with Rebo at Work, 98% of apprentices were able to identify their work experience as a learning opportunity and reflect on that, and 83% successfully connected it with a learning objective. This shows that self-monitoring of learning objectives and reflection on work tasks can be guided by a conversational agent and motivates further research in this area. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Reflective learning chatbot Apprentices learning goals widget reflection guidance

Index Keywords

Engineering education Apprentices Reflective learning Work experience Learning opportunity Chatbots Learning objectives Field studies Learning goal widget Learning goals Metal technology Reflection guidance

Author Affiliations

Know-Center, Graz, Graz, Styria, Austria

Technische Universitat Graz, Graz, Styria, Austria

Funding & Acknowledgements

Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth, BMWFJ

This work has partially been funded by the WKO; and within the Austrian COMET Program – Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies – under the auspices of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth and by the State of Styria. COMET is managed by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG.

Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie, BMVIT

This work has partially been funded by the WKO; and within the Austrian COMET Program – Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies – under the auspices of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth and by the State of Styria. COMET is managed by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG.

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Rebo at Work: Reflecting on Working, Learning, and Learning Goals with the Reflection Guidance Chatbot for Apprentices

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