In this session, we will share the protocol we developed to encourage students to use the conversational AI features of a robot dog to deepen their exploration of course materials. US higher education has seen an increase in international student enrollment post-pandemic; however, international students encounter several challenges in adapting to the higher education system in the United States. Challenges include among others academic and psychological, and while the proposed protocol focuses on lessening academic challenges, we hypothesize that there may be a positive influence on psychological ones such as loneliness and social isolation.

We followed a design-based research approach to explore whether and how an AI-based Robot Dog, Loona, could support learners’ asynchronous class activities, their academic performance, and their sense of belonging. Our investigation examined Loona's two modes of interaction:
(1) personalized learning for independent study, and
(2) social-emotional support for motivation and empathy.

Our initial testing indicated that the use of Loona’s conversational AI option has the potential to support students in better understanding new concepts through, for example, explanations of terms within the context of a particular sector/industry. It also has the potential to scaffold learners in practicing reflective thinking. For example, Loona asks questions, such as "What do you already know about a particular subject?" and probes students to further their content exploration. It enables and expands the space for inquiry, a fundamental technique in the constructivism paradigm.

Loona’s empathetic responses like “How can I help you?” and “How do you feel today?" can help develop a meaningful social-emotional connection with international students. When testing Loona during group interactions, Loona's distractibility had unexpected results, such as the promotion of active listening, patience, and turn-taking in students.

This initial design-based research approach for testing AI-driven tools, such as Loona, illustrates that there is potential for their use to support academic involvement, emotional resilience, and improvement in the learning experience of international students. Our future research will continue to focus on how AI robots could support social learning within a classroom environment and how such tools could be used to support adaptive learning outside of the classroom environment.

Keywords: Technology, conversational AI, student support.