CSUB receives $250,000 grant to improve chatbot

University, CSUN to use chatbots to increase transfers from Antelope Valley College

By California State University, Bakersfield

November 30^th, 2022

California State University, Bakersfield and CSU Northridge have formed a partnership focused on enrolling more students from Antelope Valley College (AVC).

CSUB and CSUN each received $250,000, two-year grants from the College Futures Foundation to expand the knowledge base of their chatbots — Rowdy and CSUNny, respectively — with the goal of increasing transfer rates among AVC students.

“It’s really exciting. What a great feather in our cap,” said Jaimi Paschal, senior coordinator of student success systems at CSUB. “This is an awesome way to provide a path, an easily navigable path, for students from a community college to a university.”

Debbi Cours, associate vice president of undergraduate studies at CSUN, said she is grateful for the grant and is looking forward to working with CSUB to conduct this pilot effort.

“We are committed to transfer success, and research shows that sense of belonging is so important to student success,” she said. “If we can help our students feel connected to us, even before they transfer, that may help students, particularly those who are first-generation college students or from historically minoritized communities, to see themselves on the pathway to the bachelor’s degree.”

While both schools’ existing chatbots can answer general questions and are largely targeted to existing students, the grants will allow the institutions to target incoming AVC students and provide information specific to the needs of those students.

“We want to see if giving students access to information about the four-year institution from the moment they come to AVC will help more of them transfer and transfer faster,” said Dr. Elizabeth Adams, dean of the CSUB Antelope Valley (AV) campus. “The idea is to see if they can picture themselves as CSUB students before they can even apply.”

Dr. Adams said the intention is for the two chatbots — which is available through the universities’ websites and via text — to direct students to either CSUB or CSUN, depending on their major and other factors.

“We want to push students to both AV and the main campus depending on what students want to do,” she said. “If AV is a better fit, we’ll direct them there. The same goes for the main campus.” AVC students often overlook the Bakersfield campus when considering where to transfer, Dr. Adams said, especially for students who can’t relocate and are under the misconception that Bakersfield would be farther to commute than CSUN.

“One of the things AVC students often don’t recognize is that even if they can’t relocate, coming to CSUB isn’t any farther in terms of time than going to CSUN. Northridge is physically closer, but the traffic is worse in L.A., so in the end it would take them longer,” she said.

While students have been able to initiate contact with the chatbots themselves through the universities’ websites, the grant funding will allow CSUB and CSUN to reach prospective Antelope Valley students via text message campaigns that can be targeted in various ways, such as directing messages to sub-groups of students.

The first campaigns using the improved chatbots will begin in January with the start of the spring semester.

Dr. Howard Davis, interim assistant superintendent/vice president of academic affairs at AVC, said both CSUB and CSUN have long been critical transfer partners and that he is excited to see how this new endeavor will encourage more students to transfer.

“While we send hundreds of students every year to these excellent universities, we know that we can increase those numbers even further,” he said. “The chatbot grants will make the process more informed and seamless for students. We are most excited about the chatbot nudges and interactions providing abundant support to students who need it the most.”

'A game-changer'

Dr. Adams came up with the idea of partnering with CSUB for a chatbot project this past spring while she was still working at CSUN as the associate vice president of undergraduate studies. She thought AVC would be a good community college to target as it mostly feeds into two four-year universities.

Bulking up the chatbots to increase transfer rates was something CSUN was already looking into. Prior to reaching out to CSUB, the university conducted a study of freshmen in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years in which half of the students received access to a chatbot and the other half didn’t.

Dr. Adams said the study showed that students with access to the bot were more likely to be retained at the university, especially those who are underserved.

“It allows them to feel like the institution cares without having to pick up the phone and call somebody,” she said. “It’s easy to use and it gives them an access point that is judgement-free. It’s not anonymous, but it’s far enough removed from people that students feel comfortable using it.”

CSUB and CSUN pitched the collaboration to the College Futures Foundation, which was intrigued by the project and decided to provide grants to both schools.

“We’ve read the research that shows that chatbots help students get the information they need to complete at higher levels, so the idea of piloting this notion that the same could be said for students who are not even on [a four-year] campus yet was worth testing,” said Senior Program Officer Maureen Carew.

Carew said the foundation liked the idea of both universities working together to test this.

“CSUB’s a leader in this transfer realm. They’ve been doing a lot over the years, and so has Northridge,” she said. “What’s unique about this is that two CSU campuses coming together to support on one community college campus and its students.”

Carew said she hopes the project will lead more students to successfully transfer and that other universities will see how effective chatbots can be.

“Once students get to a CSU campus, they have a really good chance of graduating, but not a lot of people get over that transfer barrier,” she said. “Any way that we can support students to cross that transfer goal will be great.”

Paschal expects that the improved chatbots will lead to better transfer rates to CSUB among AVC students.

“I think it’s going to increase students’ knowledge of how to transfer and we’re going to see students who are coming in more prepared,” she said. “They’re going to understand what needs to be completed at the community college and what needs to be completed at CSUB.”

Dr. Adams believes the improved chatbots will lead more community college students to pursue a four-year degree, which in turn can bring more talent to Kern County and lead to more economic development in the region.

“I think it’s really a chance to see if we change how we communicate and we change how we use this resource, whether or not that can make a difference for students who otherwise wouldn’t pursue a university degree,” she said. “What we need to do is help students make the best, most informed decisions they can. I hope it’s going to be a game-changer.”