Dental tutorbot: Exploitation of dental textbooks for automated learning

Abstract

Active learning has been shown to provide benefits over traditional didactic approaches to teaching and learning. These benefits are particularly important in fields in which students must master large amounts of information and effectively operationalize it, as in medicine and dentistry. While online learning platforms have the potential to provide students with active learning without taxing scarce faculty resources, a recognized challenge in producing such systems is the engineering of the domain knowledge needed for engaging interaction. In this paper we address this problem by developing an open-source chatbot-based tutoring system trained on dental textbooks in the area of endodontics, one of the most challenging areas of dentistry. Dental TutorBot is built using Rasa for modular training purposes. It asks short questions from students and evaluates their answers. If the student cannot answer a question, the system provides a hint, rather than immediately giving the student the answer. In this way, it coaches the student to find the answer and thus helps them to understand the connections between concepts while creating a more intellectually stimulating learning experience.