To give college students realistic practices for their first professional employment interviews, Cal State Fullerton Mathematics and Sociology Canculty is using AI to develop mock interview bots.
According to Project Director Alison Marzocchi, professor of mathematics, “G𝜋T: Generic Practice Interview Trainer” closes the gap in opportunity by providing students with a genuine content-based interview experience.
“We saw an opportunity to enter the job market where students can leverage AI tools that provide interview practice and prepare them for employment applications and interview processes,” says Marzocchi. “It's easy to use. Even for people who are used to AI.”
Funded by a $150,000 grant from the California Educational Learning Lab, the mock interview bot will be spread free of charge next summer across campuses at California State University and other universities.
Before sharing the tools widely, nine CSUF faculty members and 90 students representing all nine universities and the Pollack Library will pilot two iterations of AI bots this academic year to assess ethical issues.
“We want to make sure this transformational tool is accessible to everyone and that it can address ethics and privacy concerns,” says Marzocchi.
For example, bots are tested to ensure that students are not treated differently based on their perceived gender, their native language, or other identity characteristics.
Mathematics' leading Giselle Cortez-Tlaxcuapan is among the students working on the project. She is working on identifying and analyzing potential biases in AI tools.
“The goal is to develop tools that truly benefit students and minimize potential shortcomings,” Cortez Trax said.
What's unique about this project is that bots equipped with artificial intelligence can be customized by instructors and students to meet their respective goals simultaneously.
Students can tailor the bot to simulate interviews to a specific career path or position. In return, AI BOT provides real-time and summary feedback to users, helping them build confidence and skills in interviewing with future employers.
Instructors of all disciplines can customize their bots and use course content for career-related interview questions.
For example, this could be a single chapter in an open source textbook to help students prepare an entire set of lecture notes to use as exams, PowerPoint slides, or capstone assignments.
“This helps students build a conceptual understanding of coursework and practice discipline-specific communication skills,” Marzocchi said.
Matheus Guerrero, Sunny Le, Francisco Zepeda, all mathematics faculty members and sociology faculty member Edward Watson are also involved in the project. The faculty team prepares support materials for students and instructors.
The materials include a student guidebook explaining how to participate in interviews, a faculty guidebook for customizing bots in your class, and a personalized AI prompt for instructors to adapt bots to meet course needs.
Cortez-Tlaxcuapan said that by participating in the project, he is honing his research skills while investigating his interest in AI development. After graduation, third-year students plan to use AI tools to launch careers in software and video game development.
“Bringing from underrepresented communities and first generation university students, tools like this help level the playing field. It's exciting to contribute to something that will help students like me succeed,” she said.
“The most rewarding thing is knowing that this AI tool can help many students land their dream job.”
