Practising with AI: a chatbot for suicide prevention
In the ‘Educatips’ column, Psychology lecturers share their most important insights about teaching. This month, Joanne Mouthaan and Anna Hudson talk about an AI chatbot they are developing with which students can practise their suicide prevention skills. ‘It’s not really feasible to use actual people, so an AI chatbot can take over that role.’
How do you prepare psychology students for holding discussions about suicide? Associate Professor Joanne Mouthaan and researcher Anna Hudson developed an e-learning module together with national experts that will be used in different subjects throughout the Netherlands and that trainee psychologists can use to develop this important skill. They came up with the idea of having an AI chatbot test the effectiveness of the module.
Hudson explains: ‘We want to know whether the e-learning module really does improve students’ discussion skills. It’s difficult to use real people for this because we have limited time and resources and an AI chatbot can take over that role.’ Together with colleague Maartje Schoorl, Mouthaan and Hudson have been awarded a Grassroots subsidy for this project.
From theory to practice
Testing the effectiveness of the e-learning module is not the only reason why an AI chatbot can have a positive impact. A chatbot is also a means for psychology students to apply their theoretical knowledge in practice. ‘Having a real person before you is, of course, always the best option. Most students gain this experience during their internship, but AI is a good solution to train and repeat these skills,’ Mouthaan explains. ‘Students also said that in the focus groups we organised to evaluate the e-learning module. They really appreciate having the time to practise because it helps them train their skills, gain insight into how they are doing and seeing their own progress.’
The ethical questions around AI
Although an AI chatbot offers a lot of benefits, the researchers stress the importance of ethical considerations when using AI. Does the chatbot stay within the boundaries of its role, for example? And is the information that students give the digital discussion partner handled responsibly? ‘We take the ethical issues into account at every step in the development process,’ Mouthaan confirms. To gain a better understanding of the effects of the chatbot, the researchers interviewed students about their attitude to chatbots in education. In discussions with the trainee psychologists, they also explored what influence the chatbot had on them. Leiden University has its own platform for developing AI chatbots, so the data always remains within the university.
Looking to the future
The first steps in developing the chatbot have already been taken. Hudson elaborates: ‘We have defined how the AI chatbot should behave when a patient with depression and suicidal thoughts first comes to a mental healthcare institution. Then we tested it by talking to it, seeing how it responded to different questions, and how it reacted to questions that deviated from the script. It’s important to do that because it can happen that someone says something odd so we want to test how it responds to that and whether it remains in its role. We also used this to refine the answers of the digital discussion partner. The chatbot started talking about suicidal thoughts very quickly and we wanted to make that more natural, so we instructed it to be a bit more reticent.’
Mouthaan and Hudson believe that AI chatbots have great potential for future education. Mouthaan explains: ‘You could develop more chatbots to practise and test other skills that students need to develop. At the same time, it is a kind of experiment to see how well a chatbot works, what the effects are and whether we can integrate it into education.’
Share your educa-tip?
Are you a lecturer at the Institute of Psychology and do you want to tell colleagues about how you teach? Or would you like to nominate an inspiring colleague for the next column? You can send a mail to news.psy@fsw.leidenuniv.nl putting ‘Educatip’ in the subject field.
Send messageThinking about suicide? Contact 113 Suicide Prevention 24/7 free and anonymously on 0800-0113 or chat at 113.co.uk.