Managing AI Tools for Courses

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Feature Overview and Requirements

The AI Tools tab is a content generation feature currently available for courses using the Self-Study delivery method. It provides portal administrators with an option to create and index a body of knowledge about the course based on selected resources, then generate an AI-based, editable Study Guide for the course which includes overviews, learning objectives, practice quiz questions, flash cards, and more.

The generated study guide is fully editable and administrators can determine whether or not the guide or the resources associated with the course appear in the course window when a student launches a self-study course.

This is an optional tool that can help make Self-study courses more robust and more meaningful to learners.

Step by Step Procedure and Field Description

To use the AI Tools features for a Self-Study course, there are three primary areas you will need to manage:

  1. AI Body of Knowledge: In this step you select the resources to be included in the generation of the AI Study Guide and initiate indexing of the selected content as a basis for the Study Guide.
  2. AI-Generated Content: Once your selected content is indexed, this step involves generating the AI Study Guide content. In this section you can also edit the generated content to better suit your needs.
  3. Course Experience: In this step, you select and preview the course experience your learners will see when they launch the Self-study content. The portal administrator can include the study guide and/or resource content in the launch window with the course’s launchable content, or exclude them, on a course by course basis.

The image below shows the AI Tools tab where no indexing or content generation has taken place. Each section will be discussed in more detail in sections below.

Build and Index the AI Body of Knowledge

Before you can generate an AI Study Guide, you must first build the AI Body of Knowledge from which the Study Guide generation can be based on. You can include resources associated with the course, as well as other active resources from the Resource Catalog that are not tied to the Self-Study course in any manner. 

The Resource Types available for inclusion in the study guide are Files and Pages, meaning you can include resources for .pdf files, MS Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, images, videos, and custom HTML pages you have built into the LMS. They must be created as resources in order to be selected and indexed.  Resources that are links cannot be indexed or used to support AI content generation at this time. If you have links to videos in YouTube or Vimeo, you will need to save them to a video file format and make file-based resources for them.

To build and index your course’s AI Body of Knowledge:

  1. In the Resource field, use the type ahead drop-down list to select a Resource for inclusion, then click +Add next to that line to add it to the list. Note that once the addition is made, the action button turns to Remove.
  2. Repeat step 1 until  you have selected the desired Resources for inclusion. If you need to update or add a Resource on the fly, click Resource Catalog to open that page directly.
  3. When you are ready to index the selected content, click Build. Indexing will commence and status messages will display as the process takes place.
  4. When the message Index is Ready displays, you are then able to generate an AI Study Guide.

Important Points about Indexing the Body of Knowledge

  • This process, depending on the number and size of the selected resources, can take a very long time to index. It is okay to leave the page and continue doing other work, while periodically checking back to review the status.
  • If you change the content or key information related to an already indexed resource, the LMS will trigger an automatic rebuild of the index.
  • If you add new items to the Body of Knowledge list, it does not automatically index them. You will get a message indicating the Body of Knowledge is built, but resources have changes since the last build. You can click Build again when you’re ready to re-index the Body of Knowledge.

Warning: If You Manually Edited a Generated Study Guide

If you have previously created an AI Study Guide and have edited the content in any way, such as to remove sections, update terminology, or change the styling of the guide, if you regenerate the index and then regenerate the Study Guide, you will lose all the edits and they will need to be re-done.

Generate the AI Study Guide Content

Before indexing, the AI Generated Content section is empty. After you’ve selected and indexed the Body of Knowledge, you will be able to generate your first AI Study Guide for the course.  This is how it looks prior to generation:

  1. In the Content section of the AI Generated Content area, click Generate.

    The AI Study Guide generates quickly. 
  2. After the Study Guide generates, you then see several options:
    • View the current version of the Study Guide – a display only preview of the content
    • Edit the current version of the Study Guide – opens a rich text/HTML source editor for updating the content of the Study Guide.
    • Regenerate the Study Guide content
  3. If you choose to Edit the Study Guide, you will access a rich text editor with an option to work directly in HTLM source code to get the styles and effects you want. 
    • Click Source to access the HTML editor.
    • Click Download to save a copy of the content.
    • Use the Button bar and/or your keyboard to make text edits to styling or add/remove sections of the material.
    • Scroll to the bottom of the editor after any edits to SAVE prior to returning to the AI Tools page.

Upon return to the AI Tools page, you will see the Study Guide labeled as Edited.
Warning: Any regeneration of the Study Guide will overwrite prior modifications and they will need to be re-created.

Configure the Course Experience for Learners

When your AI Study Guide is finalized, you can determine how everything will appear to your learners after they enroll in and launch the Self-Study content. The options in this section are:

  • Resource Catalog: Direct access to the Resource Catalog for additions or updates.
  • View Course: Preview the Course as the learner will see it, based on the configurations selected.
  • View (next to the Course name): Preview the course without included Study Guide or included resources.
  • Course Materials: In this section include or exclude the AI Study Guide or the course’s attached Resources in the course content for the learner.
    • Study Guide: Move the slider right to include a Study Guide tab in the course view.
    • Attached Resources: Move the slider right to include a Resources tab in the course view.

The Learner Experience

When your course with the AI content is ready for learners and they enroll, this is an example of their view upon course launch for a course with the main Resource set to launch a PDF file with attached resources and the AI study guide enabled for the course experience.

  • The content set in the Launchable resource area of the course displays at the left.
  • The Study Guide tab displays the current version of the study guide.
  • The Resources tab lists the course’s attached resources for opening or download.