Timelines and Project Team The projected timeline for the technical design and implementation of the LawBot Project was quite ambitious, namely six months from concept to implementation. This was successfully achieved, and on 25 July 2022, LawBot was launched for the Law of Contract students. (see Figure 3 bottom right). The LawBot Project is a collaborative effort between various role players. Firstly, the LawBot Project would not have been possible without the funding received from the Teaching Innovation Fund, the Faculty of Law, and the reduced fee from the development team. Secondly, the LawBot Project team consisted of: • Associate Professor Michele van Eck, the lecturer for the Law of Contract module, who initiated the Project concept and provided the structure for the material and information to be included in the chatbot; • Prof Abejide Ade-Ibijola (the technical project lead) and his student assistant, Nashik Sivparsad, who provided the technical design, programming, support, and graphics for the chatbot. Structure and Technical Elements The algorithms that underpin chatbots can be described as a form of artificial intelligence, but have mostly been used in selecting menu options to guide the user either through a discussion or through certain information (Schmulian & Coetzee 2018). Yet, with technological advances chatbots may broadly be categorised as either having developed to: • function on a standalone platform (Schmulian & Coetzee 2018), a typical example of this is the chatbot found on the UJ website; or • the chatbot may be embedded into an existing MIM App, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, or other messenger-type applications (Schmulian & Coetzee 2018). An example may be Robbie 2.0 embedded in the MS Teams platform. LawBot utilised the first of the above categories and was created with the SnatchBot platform. This was an iterative process of development and testing between the two professors involved in this project LawBot can be accessed and interacted with at: https://tinyurl.com/LawBotUj The use of the chatbot will add a larger strategic benefit to the teaching and learning process in the Law of Contract module. Not only is it the first of its kind in the Faculty of Law, but it also permits students to engage remotely and to foster inclusive learning practices on platforms familiar to them. Figure 3: Launch message to students of LawBot Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching Innovation Projects 2022 83
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