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Instructor guide

Build a course TA around your materials

Instructors control the course knowledge base, bot behavior, approved student access, and review tools for each selected course.

Recommended Setup Workflow

1. Select the course

Use the course selector before editing the bot. All dashboard actions apply to the currently selected course.

2. Build the knowledge base

Upload the syllabus, assignments, rubrics, slides, and other instructor-approved materials.

3. Edit bot behavior

Set expectations for tone, boundaries, academic integrity, and how the TA should handle uncertainty.

4. Check reliability

Use Reliability tools and Test bot with realistic student questions before releasing the TA to students.

5. Add students

Use Manage student list to approve student emails for the selected course.

6. Review and maintain

Use analytics and chat history to improve documents, instructions, and starter questions over time.

Dashboard Features

Analytics

Review approved and active student counts, weekly usage, response quality, conversation depth, usage rhythm, knowledge-base match quality, topic trends, and topic-by-question-type patterns.

Test bot

Try the selected course TA as an instructor. Test chats are not saved to student chat history, so this is the safest place to check new materials or prompt changes.

Chat history

Review student conversations for the selected course, including source-match indicators below assistant responses. This can help identify confusing assignments, recurring policy questions, or topics that need class clarification.

Edit bot behavior

Adjust the TA's tone, boundaries, academic integrity rules, and conversation starters. This shapes how the TA responds, while the knowledge base supplies course facts.

Knowledge base

Upload course materials, assign categories, rename documents, add optional notes telling the bot when and how to use each source, download original files, and remove outdated documents.

Reliability tools

Test retrieval for sample questions, inspect source matches, review instructor source notes, preview excerpts, and check knowledge-base health issues before students rely on the TA.

Manage student list

Approve student emails for the selected course. Instructors can add students for their course, while broader user and instructor management stays in admin mode.

Admin users

Visible only to admin accounts. Admins can create courses and manage approved student, instructor, and admin accounts across courses.

Account settings

Update account information and sign out when needed.

Switch to another course

Move between courses when assigned to more than one course TA.

Using Data For Teaching And Research

The dashboard is not only a usage counter. It helps instructors understand how students seek support, where they struggle, and which course materials may need clarification. When handled responsibly, collected data can support better teaching decisions and meaningful learning research.

The current analytics board is organized around four practical questions: who is using the TA, when they use it, what they ask, and whether the TA appears to have enough course evidence to respond well. Use the response quality signal, conversation depth, usage rhythm, knowledge-base match quality, and topic-by-question-type view together rather than treating any single metric as a final judgment.

Improve teaching

Use topic trends, question types, and topic-by-question-type patterns to identify concepts, assignments, or policies that need clearer instruction.

Monitor support quality

Review helpfulness ratings, unresolved feedback, and response coverage to spot answers that may need source updates or behavior-prompt refinement.

Strengthen the knowledge base

Use retrieval confidence and knowledge-base match quality to find materials that are missing, too broad, outdated, or categorized incorrectly.

Understand engagement

Use weekly usage, usage rhythm, active student counts, and conversation depth to understand when students seek help and whether they are asking quick or sustained questions.

Inform research

Use de-identified aggregate patterns to study help seeking, learning friction, engagement, and the instructional role of AI-supported learning assistants.

Research use should rely on de-identified or aggregated records whenever possible. Student names, emails, and direct identifiers should be excluded from research reporting unless a separate approved process permits otherwise. Dashboard patterns should be interpreted with course timing, assignment due dates, Canvas activity, and instructor observations; they should not be used as grades or formal student performance judgments.

Start With These Materials

A simple setup is enough to make the TA useful quickly. Focus on materials students would normally check in Canvas before asking the instructor.

  • Syllabus
  • Assignment instructions
  • Sample assignments or model excerpts, if appropriate
  • Rubrics
  • Weekly lecture slides
  • Key handouts or study guides
  • Course policy documents

How Materials Shape The Bot

The TA retrieves relevant excerpts from uploaded documents and combines them with the behavior prompt. If the knowledge base is incomplete, outdated, or unclear, the bot may provide less useful guidance or rely on general explanation.

  • Upload materials before students begin using the TA.
  • Keep documents aligned with the current semester.
  • Remove outdated materials.
  • Include rubrics and assignment instructions when students will ask assignment questions.
  • Add short bot-use notes for sources that have special boundaries, such as drafts, examples, policies, or materials that students should confirm in Canvas.
  • Test the bot after major uploads or behavior-prompt changes.

Preparing Files For Better Answers

The TA works best when uploaded files are current, readable, and specific. Think of the knowledge base as the course context the TA is allowed to rely on.

The Knowledge Base page supports PDF, DOCX, PPTX, Excel, text, Markdown, CSV, and JSON uploads. You can upload multiple files at once. If you provide one shared title for multiple files, the app saves them as Title (1), Title (2), and so on. After upload, use Rename when a document title needs to be clearer.

Use descriptive file names that include the week, topic, or assignment name.

Prefer PDF, DOCX, PPTX, or text files with selectable text rather than scanned images.

Use document categories intentionally: syllabus, assignments/projects, slides, readings/concepts, course policy, or general.

Rename uploaded documents when a file name is not clear enough for instructors or source chips.

Add optional notes to tell the bot when a source should be used, when it should be treated cautiously, or when students should verify details elsewhere.

Separate outdated materials from current-semester materials.

Upload assignment instructions and rubrics together when possible.

Avoid uploading private student work unless it is approved, anonymized, and appropriate for course support.

Remove or replace files when deadlines, requirements, or policies change.

Knowledge Base Notes And Categories

Categories help the TA choose the right source before it answers. Syllabus and policy questions prefer syllabus or policy documents, assignment questions prefer assignments/projects, slide questions prefer slides, and concept questions prefer readings/concepts. Use General only when a document does not fit a narrower category.

Optional notes to the bot are useful when a source needs extra guidance. For example, you can tell the TA to use a rubric for grading criteria, use a sample assignment only as an example, or remind students to confirm changing dates and announcements in Canvas. These notes are included in retrieval and reliability previews, but they are not displayed to students as standalone instructions.

Bot Behavior

Use Edit bot behavior to define tone, academic integrity expectations, course boundaries, and how the TA should use uploaded materials. Keep the prompt concise. The knowledge base should carry course facts; the behavior prompt should guide how the TA responds.

Useful behavior-prompt details

Tell the TA how concise it should be, when to refer students back to Canvas or the instructor, how to handle assignment questions, and what it should refuse to do. Avoid putting long syllabus content in the behavior prompt; upload that content to the knowledge base instead.

Testing Before Students Use It

Use Test bot after uploading files or changing the behavior prompt. Try questions that students are likely to ask about deadlines, assignment expectations, rubric criteria, and difficult concepts.

Use Reliability tools for a deeper check. The reliability page shows detected category, category search order, source-match confidence, retrieved source names, instructor notes, and excerpt previews. If source confidence is low or none, add clearer documents, improve categories, rename unclear sources, or add a short note telling the bot where that source should be used.

If the TA gives a vague answer, upload a clearer document or revise the behavior prompt. If it gives an answer that is too long, tighten the behavior prompt. If it misses course-specific details, the knowledge base probably needs more direct source material.

Student Attachments

Students can attach PDF, DOCX, PPTX, and Excel files during chat for one-time help with a specific document. These attachments are not added to the course knowledge base. They are temporary session materials, retained only long enough to support follow-up questions in that chat and then removed based on the configured temporary attachment retention window.

Official course materials should still be uploaded by the instructor through the Knowledge Base page. This keeps course-level knowledge under instructor control.

Semester Maintenance

Weekly

Upload new slides, handouts, or clarifications. Categorize new documents and test one or two likely student questions in Reliability tools.

Before major assignments

Upload the assignment prompt, rubric, examples, and any instructor guidance students should use. Add bot-use notes if the source has special limitations.

After recurring confusion

If many students ask the same question, update the knowledge base or clarify the assignment instructions.

End of term

Review whether old materials should be archived, removed, or updated before the next course offering.

Canvas Integration Status

The current app does not connect to Canvas, request Canvas API tokens, or automatically import Canvas records. This is intentional for safety and compliance.

Canvas integration is technically possible, but it requires institutional approval, privacy review, and support from the school or university LMS team. Until that approval and support exist, manually upload only the Canvas or course materials you are authorized and comfortable using in the TA knowledge base.

Students should still be directed to Canvas for official materials, announcements, deadlines, and course policies. The TA should be described as a support tool built from instructor-approved uploads, not as a replacement for Canvas.

Instructor Responsibility

The Virtual TA supports instruction, but it does not replace instructor judgment. Continue to direct students to Canvas, the syllabus, official announcements, and course staff for final guidance on deadlines, grades, policies, and assignment expectations.