The confluence: an open innovation ecosystem for scalable and evolutionary educational mobile chatbot

Abstract

Large Language Models (LLMs) are large deep learning models with powerful capabilities such as text summary, code generation, sentiment analysis, etc. In schools with heavily imbalanced student-to-professor ratios, the introduction of LLMs in recent years serves as a promising solution for providing personalised learning support. However, implementing LLMs as educational support tools requires these LLMs to be further fine-tuned with institution-specific materials to produce responses with higher accuracy and reliability. This project introduces an Open Innovation Ecosystem designed to streamline the development and deployment of fine-tuned educational LLMs. The ecosystem provides LLM developers with a simplified integration flow, allowing them to connect their back-end endpoints directly to a pre-built infrastructure that handles front-end interfaces, middleware configuration, and database management. By abstracting these technical components, the ecosystem significantly reduces development cycles and enables developers to focus exclusively on optimising LLM outputs for educational contexts. Furthermore, the deployed LLMs are aggregated on a single mobile application as part of the ecosystem, serving as a centralised platform for students to access all relevant chatbots. This integration addresses the fragmentation issues of current implementations, where standalone chatbot applications create disconnected learning experiences. This project not only accelerates the development of educational LLMs but also greatly enhances the student learning experience with an all-in-one platform that brings together diverse LLM tools, establishing a scalable framework that serves as a blueprint for integrating LLMs within educational institutions.