Delivering innovative student experiences via voice

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Ana Cavez, Business Development Manager at AWS
Chris Dixon, Head of IT Partnering & Innovation, Lancaster University
March 2020
Alexa in Education
Delivering innovative student experiences via voice

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“Conversational platforms are
changing the way in which people
interact with the digital world.”
Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2019, October 2018

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1 9 7 0 s 1 9 8 0 s 1 9 9 0 s P R E S E N T2 0 0 0 s
Character Mode
GUI
Web
Mobile
VUI
UI’s have evolved over the past five decades

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Alexa everywhere

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Alexa skills: What are they?
Skills are like apps for Alexa. You can play games, order pizza, learn a new language and much more.
Skills are easy to build and easy to use
You don’t need to know how to code to build an Alexa skill so
anyone can create one. To use a new skill, users can enable them
online or just ask Alexa.
The skills AWS Marketplace is always growing
There are over 100,000 skills in the AWS Marketplace and new skills
are being added daily.
The Alexa skills experience continues to evolve
Alexa is always evolving to delight customers and make it easier for
them to do what they are trying to do.

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Alexa Skills: How do they work?

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How is Alexa being used in education today?
Make learning fun and accessible
Extend learning beyond the
classroom
Help educators be more productive
Help students study
Build smart campus experiences
Foster engagement and
productivity

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Chris Dixon
Head od IT Partnering & Innovation, Lancaster University
Ask LU

9. Lancaster University

10. “Humans can talk at 150 words
per minute, but can only type at
40”

11. 30% of all searches will be
done without a screen by
2020
(Gartner, 2019)

12. 41% of people who own
a smart speaker say it
feels like talking to a
friend or another person
(Google, 2019)

13. 55% of teenagers are using
voice search daily basis.
(The Mobile Voice Study, 2019)

14. Compelling reasons
• It’s faster and easier
• It can save actual money
• Compelling examples
• Students comfortable
with voice
• Build a foundation for
other cloud service
benefits

15. Business Case
Press Release
Lancaster University powers its online services with Alexa.
Lancaster University have become the 1st UK university to offer a voice and chatbot interface which
covers a wide range of rich interactions relating to student life, welfare, academic studies and more.
iLancaster Voice acts as a “digital friend” and companion to the student, answering questions, providing
feedback and advice. It is able to answer simple questions as well as being able to deal with more
complex conversations to assist the student in navigating their academic journey. Designed to have a
human like personality and powered by the Amazon AWS platform, iLancaster Voice is embedded in
the University’s mobile app and web portal. It allows students to ask almost any question about their
university experience and covers topics as diverse as study skills, welfare problems, social life and
academic progression. The interface, developed by a team of students and in collaboration with all
departments involved in the student journey, is able to answer tailored questions in the majority of
student key areas. It is also context aware and can carry out fully formed conversations rather than
simple question and responses. It also features a unique fall-back mechanism to deliver high quality
answers from other university systems should the voice and chat platform not be able to understand a
question. iLancaster Voice is also able to respond to feedback from users on the accuracy and
usefulness of the responses. This project lays the foundation for wider work in delivering digital
services to staff, and the team are looking forward to making further improvements and expanding this
service.

16. Zero to L.U.
⭐️420
March18
Nov18Day0
Day40
Day80
Mar19Day120
Day20
Day60
Day100
Survey to 3000
students “What
would you like
to ask a
chatbot?”
Early Prototypes
Generate
Excitement
Write Press
Release
Get money
Infrastructure
Security
APIs
QnA
University
Events
Disability
Campus Life
PC Availability
Laundry
Library
App Integration
Societies
”Cards”
Magic Sauce
Deployment
Test
Exams
Research
Staff Data
Academic
Events
Deadlines
Greetings

17. The Team
•3 x Full Time Dev
•1 x Conversation Specialist
•8 x Part time
Students

18. Student
Involvement
• Interactive Dialogue
• 100 + Beta Users
• Service desk issue
collection
• Participatory design
• Mediated Dialogue
• Focus Groups
• S.U reps on project board
• Knowledge Import
• Survey (3000+ students)
• Round-table
• Social Dialog
• Innovation process
(outside voice project)

20. Introducing L.U.
Works in iLancaster mobile
app
Works on Alexa smart
speaker family
Embedded into MS Teams
Embedded into Student
Web Portal
Also available as VR
Character (Amazon

21. What’s my
student ID?
I’ve
forgotten
what college
I’m in.
Tell me my
university
email address.
Where is my
next class?
How many
credits is
Maths 101?

22. How busy are
the computers
in the library?
What’s my
average
grade?
Research…
What’s my next deadline?
Can you book
a group pod for
me?
Who is my
next session
with?

23. How do I arrange
mitigating
circumstances?
How can I get
support for my
disability?
How do I see
a
counsellor?
How do I see a
college
wellbeing
officer?
What
circumstances
qualify for
support?

24. How we built it
AWS Lambda
iLancaster
App
Amazon Simple Storage
Service (S3)
Amazon CloudWatch
AWS X-Ray
Other Tools
Alexa enabled
device
Amazon Lex
Alexa
Skills Kit
Amazon API Gateway
Amazon
Elasticsearch Service
Local
APIs
• Societies
• Student Info
• ……
Intents / Slots Intents / Slots

25. How we authenticated it
iLancaster
App
Alexa enabled
device
User Info
AWS Lambda
Alexa
Skills Kit
Amazon Cognito
SAML
token
SAML
Provider

26. eScreens
Pull ups
Screensavers
How we sold it

28. Future
• Since Launch
• Recorded and summarised
lecturer feedback
• Lecture Playback and search
• MS Teams and Web Integration
• Telephony Integration
• FUTURE
• Use of machine learning to make
great interventions
• Welfare “Digital Friend”
• Build in more Digital Services
(Efficiency savings)
• Devices in Rooms

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How can AWS help you get started with
Alexa in your university simply & quickly?

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How would you use Alexa in your university?
Alexa, what student societies
are available at the University?
Craig, 90 days for
graduation!!! Do you want
me to make an
appointment at your
university's careers centre?
Alexa, play my last
lecture.
Alexa, can you book me a
room at the library for 4
people this Wednesday at
2pm?

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What trends are we seeing?
Business drivers for the university
Increasing student engagement
Universities are using Alexa to further engage with their students, through better communication, Hackathons and more
Increasing student retention
Universities are investing in creating voice experiences that are relevant to the students and can help them get better
outcomes – Paul, you have a new homework assignment – this is often done by integrating Alexa with university
services such as the Learning Management System, Library Services and more
Creating efficiencies towards smart campus
Alexa is an easy way for universities to connect with their campus. Booking rooms and appointments, creating
efficiencies at the library or reporting broken things across the campus are some of use cases we are seeing

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Alexa Badge for AWS Educate
Get students engaged in your skill design while preparing them for the
next-generation tech careers.
• 10-15 hours of dedicated Alexa skills training
• Designed to introduce students to the technology behind Alexa and teach them
how to build and publish new skills
• The four learning modules begin with introductory AWS services and lead to the
Alexa Skills Kit
• Complimentary
What trends are we seeing?

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What trends are we seeing?
Student experience through Alexa
Personalized
Students have to login using Single Sigh On (SSO) the first time they enable the skill and then they’ll use voice profiles
to access the skill content, meaning that all the information they receive is about them
Relevant
Connected with all the relevant university systems such as the Learning Management System, Library Services and
more, which allows students to find relevant information about their academic life such as timetabling information,
homework details, lectures or teacher feedback
Core point of contact for the university
By focusing on providing personalized and relevant information to the students start perceiving the university Alexa skill
as the first stop shop for any question they might have regarding their academic life

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More Alexa in education across the globe
US
Arizona State University - Enhancing student life and driving deep learner engagement
Saint Louis University - Preparing students for tomorrow
University of Oklahoma – Using Alexa to teach new skills to students
Spain
Universidad CEU – Using Alexa to drive student accessibility
UK
Lancaster University - Using Alexa to support student learning and living – watch the university testimonials videos here.
Bolton College – Using Alexa to communicate news from the college
Germany
Munich University of Applied Sciences – Using Alexa to teaching Computational thinking
Find more stories, use cases and resources in the Alexa in education webpage.

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Try Alexa Routines
and
Alexa Blueprints
Host a student
Hackathon
Get started OR
Outsource to
an AWS Partner
Take an online
Alexa Training
Get started!
No coding required!
Just login and have fun 
You can try a Flashbriefing
podcast for your institution!
Download this
Hackathon guide!
Check some AWS partners that
have built Alexa skills for students
ANS
Ambiently
VoiceXpert
AirTouchMedia
Ipervox
and more
Shifting to a voice-first strategy
Introduction to Skill Concepts 5 min
Getting in the Voice Mindset 30 min
Hands on
Designing for Conversation 90 min
Alexa for developers 2 hours
Build a QnA bot with Lex and Alexa 45 min

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Thank you!
Ana Cavez, Business Development Manager at AWS
anacavez@amazon.com
Chris Dixon, Head od IT Partnering & Innovation, Lancaster University