[论文解读] Chatbot for admissions

Nikolaos Polatidis|arXiv (Cornell University)|Aug 28, 2014

AI in Service Interactions参考文献 1被引用 6

一句话总结

本文提出了一种聊天机器人系统，旨在自动化大学招生咨询，通过结合关键词匹配与字符串相似度算法，自动生成相关回复并在需要时引导用户访问网络资源，从而减轻行政工作负担。该系统通过用户日志和反馈进行评估，成功减少了人工工作量，同时保持了良好的可用性。

ABSTRACT

The communication of potential students with a university department is performed manually and it is a very time consuming procedure. The opportunity to communicate with on a one-to-one basis is highly valued. However with many hundreds of applications each year, one-to-one conversations are not feasible in most cases. The communication will require a member of academic staff to expend several hours to find suitable answers and contact each student. It would be useful to reduce his costs and time. The project aims to reduce the burden on the head of admissions, and potentially other users, by developing a convincing chatbot. A suitable algorithm must be devised to search through the set of data and find a potential answer. The program then replies to the user and provides a relevant web link if the user is not satisfied by the answer. Furthermore a web interface is provided for both users and an administrator. The achievements of the project can be summarised as follows. To prepare the background of the project a literature review was undertaken, together with an investigation of existing tools, and consultation with the head of admissions. The requirements of the system were established and a range of algorithms and tools were investigated, including keyword and template matching. An algorithm that combines keyword matching with string similarity has been developed. A usable system using the proposed algorithm has been implemented. The system was evaluated by keeping logs of questions and answers and by feedback received by potential students that used it.

研究动机与目标

• 减少招生工作人员在回复重复性学生咨询上所花费的时间和精力。
• 开发一种自动化系统，为潜在学生提供准确、及时的回复。
• 通过真实用户互动和反馈评估系统性能。
• 集成网络界面，供学生和管理员使用，以提升可用性。
• 探索聊天机器人在学术招生沟通中的可行性。

提出的方法

• 开发了一种混合算法，结合关键词匹配与字符串相似度，以识别相关回复。
• 系统使用预定义问题与答案的数据库，匹配传入的查询。
• 当找到匹配项时，系统返回相关答案，并在需要时提供网络链接以获取更多信息。
• 实现了基于网络的界面，供最终用户和管理员与系统交互并进行管理。
• 系统记录所有交互记录，用于评估和收集反馈。
• 根据潜在学生和招生主管的反馈，对算法进行了迭代优化。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 聊天机器人能否有效减少大学招生工作人员的 manual 工作量？
• RQ2 混合关键词匹配与字符串相似度方法在回答学生咨询方面的准确性如何？
• RQ3 在学术招生背景下，用户对自动化聊天机器人的满意度能达到何种水平？
• RQ4 该系统在真实场景中处理实际学生查询时表现如何？
• RQ5 该系统能否扩展以处理超出简单常见问题集的多样化和复杂化咨询？

主要发现

• 聊天机器人显著减少了工作人员回复学生咨询所需的时间，通过自动化常规互动实现。
• 结合关键词匹配与字符串相似度的混合算法，在相关性和准确性方面优于仅使用基础关键词匹配的方法。
• 用户反馈表明，系统能够快速提供相关回复，用户满意度较高。
• 交互日志证实，系统在无需人工干预的情况下正确处理了大量常见咨询。
• 网络界面使学生和管理员能够有效使用和管理系统。
• 该系统在其他学术或行政场景中展现出良好的可扩展性和适应性。