The Chatbot Effect - An exploratory study investigating how students interpret and adopt chatbots in higher education

Sammanfattning: Chatbots have emerged as a promising technology in various contexts, including education. The year 2022 brought chatbots into the mainstream when OpenAI released the chatbot ChatGPT, which students have rapidly adopted. The increasing presence of open-domain, freemium chatbots has sparked interest and debate around its potential impact on education. Given the limited research available in this field, this thesis takes an exploratory approach to investigate students' interpretations and adoption of chatbots in education. Against the backdrop of the growing reliance on chatbots, this thesis aims to reduce the ambiguity surrounding students' chatbot usage. A qualitative cross-sectional case study explores 13 business students' perspectives using semi-structured interviews. The collected data is analyzed through the lens of Technological Frames of Reference (TFR). The findings uncover three domains students rely on when approaching the chatbot; areas of use, perceived outcomes, and societal trends and adaptation. The study also provides insights into situations where time constraints lead students to reprioritize the outcomes they associate with using the chatbot. This thesis contributes essential insights for educational managers and policymakers when addressing the diffusion of chatbots in education.