A Survey of Questions to an Informational Chatbot in a Residential High School

What is it about?

This paper is about a student-built chatbot called DragonBot, designed to help students at NCSSM-Morganton get answers about their school. DragonBot appears as an animated dragon on a large screen and talks with students using speech. Students can ask it questions about things like food, weather, campus rules, classes, clubs, buildings, and school life. The project looked at how students actually used DragonBot when it was placed in a public area on campus for four days. Students asked 882 questions, and the researchers grouped those questions into themes. Many students asked social questions, such as questions about people or the dragon itself, while others asked practical questions about campus life, school rules, academics, and daily needs. Some students also tried to test or confuse the chatbot.

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Photo by Leandro De Torres on Unsplash

Photo by Leandro De Torres on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This work is important because it studies how high school students interact with a chatbot in a real school setting, rather than only testing a chatbot with sample questions or in a controlled lab. DragonBot was built by students for their own campus and was used naturally by students in a public area. The project collected real student questions, giving insight into what students actually want from an AI assistant at school. The study is also timely because schools are increasingly interested in using AI tools, but there is still limited research on how high school students use chatbots in everyday campus life. By showing that students ask about social topics, campus life, rules, academics, and even try to challenge the system, this work can help future school chatbots become more useful, accurate, and student-centered.