Giving Compass' Take:

• Rebecca Koenig at EdSurge reports on the launch of Aidan, an innovative chatbox tool that will assist the U.S. Federal Student Aid department. 

• What will be the most challenging aspects of using Aidan? What are the ways that funding and assistance programs can help inform financial aid strategies? 

• Here's an article on using innovations in financial aid to support college success. 

With $1.5 trillion in outstanding loans to more than 40 million borrowers, the Federal Student Aid office ought to “provide services on par with world-class financial firms,” U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said Tuesday at the office’s annual conference.

In her vision, that means a single website and single phone number instead of numerous, confusing communication options. It means an updated version of the myStudentAid mobile application the Department of Education unveiled in 2018.

And for the first time, it means a chatbot.

Students are always brimming with questions about the financial-aid process, DeVos acknowledged in her remarks, and they’ll soon be able to pose their inquiries to Aidan, the department's new robotic assistant.

The tool, represented by a little owl, will be able to help answer more 800 frequently asked questions about federal student aid.

Aidan will launch in beta on Dec. 22 to a limited number of students, parents and borrowers through StudentAid.gov, according to a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Education. Additional customers will be added throughout 2020, and the chatbot will later be made available through the myStudentAid app.

Read the full article about Aidan by Rebecca Koenig at EdSurge.