Citizens & Scholars’ Dialogue in Practice

Join OCCE and SUNY for a virtual information session and a demo of Institute of Citizens & Scholars’ Dialogue in Practice. 

Dialogue in Practice, is an AI-enabled training tool that delivers skills based on pedagogically sound learning objectives, and offers immediate opportunities to practice conversations and skills in real time with AI conversation partners and provides immediate feedback on those practice sessions from an AI mentor trained in the learning objectives. 

The training module begins with several motivating videos designed to demonstrate why civil discourse is not only a critical skill in the classroom and on campus, but also an advantage in the workplace and real life. Each session is completely customized and personalized to the student: the student identifies issues that they care about and shares what they think about them. The exercise that follows is then tailored to their initial inputs.

The curriculum is broken into several modules, each of which delivers a discrete skill of discourse (e.g., listening and reflecting, asking questions of curiosity) followed by the opportunity to practice that skill in a voice-based conversation about one of the topics the student chose with an AI conversation partner. At the end of the conversation, the student gets feedback on how they did from an AI mentor (or "tutor bot") that has been trained in the learning objectives and has observed the conversation. This process repeats across 4 target skills and dispositions: making others feel heard; asking questions of curiosity; sharing perspectives in a connected, respectful way; and handling high-emotion conversations. The student's final conversation is with a slightly more aggressive conversation partner, in which the student will need to bring all the skills together. 

A key advantage of this training is that students are practicing live, but in a completely risk-free environment because their conversations are with an AI partner. If they make mistakes or if they aren't clear on their own position, this is all done in the privacy of their individual training session, and they have opportunities to try again. They will also have practiced conversations on topics that they personally care about and that are likely to arise in a campus setting.

Privacy protections are built into the tool’s design and implementation. The tool measures the success of the learning objectives using an anonymous pre-and post participation survey. Both surveys have questions related to the learning objectives and the post survey also includes questions related to the experience.