A Robot-Delivered Program for Low-Intensity Problem-Solving Therapy for Students in Higher Education

Social robots have been used to help people to make healthy changes, and one setting that could benefit from having more support services offered includes the higher education sector. This trial involved an initial test to explore how a social robot could help to deliver a low-intensity problem-solving session for students around study-related issues and challenges. A Pepper Humanoid Robot was deployed in a student centre to help students to build a problem-solving plan on a specific issue. In the trial, 72 students gave detailed responses to session questions for issues such as procrastination, life/study balance and study workload. Students reported good ratings for emotional reaction to the robot, perceived utility, intention to use the robot again, confidence to use the robot, perceived helpfulness from the robot, likelihood to use the robot for a new higher education issue, and to recommend the robot to a friend. Robot evaluation scores were correlated with scores on perceived helpfulness of the robot and confidence to try an idea in the next week. Students who reported positive robot evaluation scores were also more willing to use the session content and rate the content as helpful. One week later, most students reported that the robot session helped them to fix their chosen issue, and that they used at least one idea from the session. Overall, this study found that a session run by a social robot could provide support for a study-related issue or challenge, and that some students did receive benefit from the session content. Future studies could include enhancements and adaptations to session length, technical refinement and capacity to address new issues during the session.