GenAI Pilot Lessons on Increasing Engagement through Expectations and Value

In the stream of constant technological change, you will likely find yourself evaluating a new technology or tool. One challenge is to gather rich feedback from busy people. Sometimes it's a challenge to even get a high response rate to frequently used user feedback tools such as surveys. How then did our team overseeing a pilot of ChatGPT Edu at Virginia Tech manage to achieve an 86% response rate (414 participants)? Pick up lessons from a ChatGPT Edu pilot lead and PMP on the likely factors that increased engagement: setting clear expectations with pilot participants, tying feedback to incentives and communicating value of participation, viewing pilots and projects as a service experience, and finding a cadence of communication that maintains connection while trying to avoid it being overwhelming, plus a healthy dose of reminders! Though now dated compared to how the generative AI space has evolved, you can find our public report of ChatGPT Edu Findings at https://ai.vt.edu/pilots.html. This is only to illustrate the richness of information possible from having strong engagement when exploring emerging technologies with our focus on strategies around motivation and engagement.