Research

Annie’s Scientific Background

The development of Annie is based on scientific research in two main areas: human-computer interaction and help-seeking behavior. Research in these fields helps design the interaction principles of the support bot and understand the importance of providing the right support at the right time.

Research Collaboration

We are happy to collaborate with research organizations to advance the understanding of learning support and the technologies used in it. Collaboration can take place in the following ways:

Using the support bot as part of a research setup: The Annie support bot can be used in various research setups to study, for example, human-computer interaction or students’ help-seeking behavior.
Anonymous datasets on student support needs: We can provide anonymized datasets containing information on learning support services and resources, students’ support needs and responses, and students’ experiences of the support received from partner institutions that have approved the use of data for research purposes.

If you are interested in research collaboration, please contact us!

Publications

Merikko, J., & Silvola, A. (2024). An AI Agent Facilitating Student Help-Seeking: Producing Data on Student Support Needs. In LAK 2024 Workshops: co-located with 14th International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK 2024) (pp. 185-194). CEUR-WS. org.

Merikko, J. (2023). Technological support for self-regulated learning. Dissertationes Universitatis Helsingiensis 39/2023.

Merikko, J. (2021). ‘Are You OK?’ Students’ Trust in a Chatbot Providing Support Opportunities. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 199-215). Cham: Springer International Publishing.