Here's to the future: Conversational agents in higher education- a scoping review

•Chatbots are regularly used in education in different roles.•The fields where most chatbots were used were health and learning support.•The key chatbot roles are assistant, tutor, student, and virtual patient.•63.3% of health-related chatbots were classified as Virtual Patients.•Only one study researched the role of a chatbot as a student.