Questions from Claude

At the onset of the PG Cert I thought of using this as an opportunity to try a few more things using chatbots, and in January I used claude.ai to generate a summary of a text that I had already read myself, and seeing how it compared. Sadly I failed to continue such experiments.

A couple of months ago I drafted question ideas for a questionnaire to share with a small number of Pre-sessional students. As I now need to put this into action, it occured to me that I could see what kind of questions a chatbot could suggest, so I turned again to claude.ai. The prompt I gave it was:

Please give me ten questions for a questionnaire asking international students (mostly Asian, studying online with a UK university) about causes of anxiety on their course.

… and this was the result:

Here are ten questions designed to explore anxiety causes among international students studying online with a UK university:

1. How often do you experience feelings of academic stress or anxiety during your online studies?
   - Never
   - Rarely
   - Sometimes
   - Often
   - Very frequently

2. To what extent do language barriers contribute to your feelings of academic anxiety? (Please elaborate on specific challenges)

3. Rank the following potential sources of anxiety from most to least significant for you:
   - Time zone differences
   - Cultural adjustment
   - Academic workload
   - Technical difficulties with online learning platforms
   - Financial pressures
   - Lack of direct social interaction
   - Assessment and grading concerns

4. How comfortable do you feel asking questions or seeking help from your course tutors in an online environment?
   - Very uncomfortable
   - Somewhat uncomfortable
   - Neutral
   - Somewhat comfortable
   - Very comfortable

5. What specific aspects of online learning do you find most anxiety-inducing? (Open-ended response)

6. How well do you feel the university's online support services address international students' mental health and academic challenges?
   - Very poorly
   - Poorly
   - Adequately
   - Well
   - Very well

7. To what extent do family expectations and cultural pressures impact your academic stress levels?
   - No impact
   - Minimal impact
   - Moderate impact
   - Significant impact
   - Overwhelming impact

8. How do you typically manage anxiety related to your online studies? (Select all that apply)
   - Talking with family
   - Consulting university counseling services
   - Peer support groups
   - Personal meditation/mindfulness
   - Professional counseling
   - Other (please specify)

9. What additional support mechanisms would you recommend to help international students reduce anxiety in online learning environments?

10. How has the transition from in-person to online learning affected your overall mental well-being and academic confidence?
    - Significantly decreased
    - Somewhat decreased
    - No change
    - Somewhat improved
    - Significantly improved

These questions are designed to capture both quantitative and qualitative insights into the anxiety experiences of international students, with a focus on understanding the unique challenges of online learning in a cross-cultural context.

Of course I would not simply copy and paste this into a questionnaire – that was never the intention – but it does provide me with a few interesting ideas that I may implement. I particularly like the idea in Q3 where the respondent is asked to rank the items in order of their significance. This could be an effective way of getting an idea of what the prevalent factors are (if any at all!), through an approach that is not too daunting, and doesn’t confront the students with having to generate the vocabulary themselves.