EmpowerME a Chula Chatbot Career Coach Preparing You with Future Skill Sets

Developed by lecturers of the Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University. EmpowerMe is a Chatbot-based career coach that enables learners to become digital citizens by developing future skill sets and suggests the right jobs needed by the market.  The application has received a gold medal award in an innovation contest in South Korea.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”, “What job are you getting now that you’ve graduated?”, “I’m interested in becoming a Metaverse storyteller, what courses must I take?  What skills or qualifications do I need to acquire?” — These are some of the questions that often plague students, many of whom do not know where they can find the answers.

EmpowerMe can now help! 

According to Professor Jintavee Khlaisang, Ph.D. of the Department of Educational Technology and Communications, “EmpowerMe is a chatbot designed to help learners to be attuned with the digital world as they prepare themselves to be digital citizens.  The application serves as a coach that offers advice and prepares learners with the skill sets needed for the career of their dreams.”  This is the Faculty of Education’s latest innovation which received research funding from the Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI).  It is also the recipient of a gold medal award from the “Seoul International Invention Fair (SIIF 2021)” held in South Korea. 

EmpowerME for a Digital Learner

Technology has changed how human beings live their lives in all spheres including learning methods and techniques.  From now on, learning requires that we embrace new forms of technology to enhance what and how we acquire knowledge.   

“It seems apparent that knowledge found in textbooks is no longer adequate for living our lives in the twenty-first century.  Learners have altered their learning behavior and are now turning to acquire knowledge by themselves from the internet.  The question is whether or not this is an efficient way of learning.”  Professor Dr. Jintavee remarked on the key element that was crucial to designing the EmpowerMe application which aims to promote digital learning as digital citizens.

“A digital learner is skillful in using digital technology safely.  They should also be discerning in effectively selecting various forms of digital technology and digital content,” Professor Dr. Jintavee explained how EmpowerME can assist learners in developing such skills.  

Having explored the latest trends, she consulted with Professor Yoshida from Chiba University in Japan on how to develop this application to be used with other wearable digital devices like VR glasses which could help improve the content of students’ lessons making them more interesting.

EmpowerMe: a career coach 24/7

Not only does EmpowerME help develop digital literacy skills, but it also serves as a way to enhance career skills according to each individual’s interests.  

“Having EmpowerME is like having a student counselor or personal coach who can offer advice on how to develop career skills in the digital age so that students can find the job for which they are well suited.  Most importantly, the chatbot is available to communicate any time of the day which corresponds perfectly with the needs of digital learners of today.”  

Professor Dr. Jintavee explained how EmpowerME is used.  The application will select and match the skills necessary for the users and their dream jobs.  It will also suggest lessons that can help the user to develop the types of skills needed in a particular career.  It also records the user’s progress which effectively helps assess and analyze the results of each individual. 

The skills learning and exercises are done via games that each learner needs to achieve in the 4 area tasks: 

1. Self-Initiation

the user determines the direction and objectives of the career of their dreams 

2. Self-Planning

the user makes plans, adjustments and selects the sources of their data and the tools needed for self-learning.

3. Self-Learning

happens on the Metaverse with the user selecting their character and the tool they will be wearing like VR glasses or EEG headbands so that they learn from various techniques like Pomodoro according to their preference.  Some functions enable the learner to chat with an expert to develop new skills as well.  

4. Self-Evaluation 

enables the learner to assess their performance and motivates them with rewards in the form of medals.  

There’s no better time to develop your future skill set!

Future skill set differs from one individual to another depending on the type of dream job each one has.  The future skill set one should achieve falls into the three following groups — 

1. One’s own career expertise and competence
2. Digital technology skills
3. Soft skills such as collaboration skills, leadership skills, and negotiation skills, for example. 

Professor Dr. Jintavee added too that EmpowerMe has been meticulously designed through research and compilation of the data on users’ experience with the advice from several digital technology experts culminating in an application for developing learners’ future skill set.  It has also been patented for user-interface design.

“Our next project is aimed at expanding communication technology to a wider audience to include interdisciplinary fields with those in the medical and nursing professions.  We will design chatbots that respond to the needs of these professions, a challenging move in applying educational technology to benefit other areas of knowledge and lifelong learning,”  Professor Dr. Jintavee concluded. 

For those interested in trying out EmpowerME the application will soon be available at https://empower-me.tech/login  and check https://www.chula.ac.th/ for the latest updates.

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