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 an indexed body of source materials about the course based on selected resources, then generate an AI-based, editable content for the course which can include a Study Guide (with overviews, learning objectives, flash cards, etc), AI assessments (for use in self-study completion verification), and an in-course AI chat-based coach.

The generated AI tools are fully editable and administrators can determine whether or not they appear in the course window when a student launches a self-study course.

These are optional tools that can help make Self-study courses more robust and engaging for learners.

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

1. AI Source Materials: In this step you select the resources to be included as a basis for the AI-generated content.
2. AI-Generated Content: This step involves indexing and generating the AI Study Guide, Assessment, and Course Coach content. In this section you can also edit the generated content to better suit your requirements.
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 AI-generated contents and/or resource content in the launch window with the course’s launchable content on a course by course basis.

This is also a great way to generate launchable content for a self-study if you do not already have a primary resource like a video or PDF to start with.  If you have resources that comprise the content you would like to be primary, you can build and generate AI content using those resources. The AI tools themselves become resources and you can return to the course’s General tab and add one of the newly generated objects as the primary content to be launched with the course.

Step by Step Procedure and Field Description

To get started with AI tools, you first need to create a course using a Self-Study delivery method. The details of setting up a Self-Study course are found on the Add a Self-Study Course support page. This document goes into more detail about the options found on the Self-Study course’s AI Tools tab, which displays upon saving the new course.

Once a Self-Study course exists, you can set up AI tools, as desired.

1. From the Administration page, navigate to Catalog > Courses.
2. Search for and open the Self-Study course you want to update.
3. Select the AI Tools tab, as shown. The sections noted below are described in more detail further into this page.
   1. AI Source Materials: Select resources for AI use.
   2. AI Generated Content: Index and build AI content based on the source materials.
      – Study Guide
      – Coach
      – Assessment
   3. Course Experience: Determine which AI content and resources will display to the user when they launch the course.

Select the AI Source Materials

Before you can generate an AI Study Guide, you must first select the AI Source Materials  which form the body of information that 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, Pages, and Links. This means 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 can be indexed, but the indexing only includes the HTML content on the page, not on-page videos, images, or additional links out from that page. 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 Add AI Source Materials:

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.

No indexing takes place until you begin to generate the actual content.

About Indexing

The indexing of the source materials takes place during the generation of the AI content type, except for the Coach.

• Study Guide: When you generate the Study Guide, indexing for the Study Guide takes place during the process. It does not impact the Assessment.
• Assessment: When you generate the Assessment, indexing for the Assessment takes place during the process. It does not impact the Study Guide.
• Coach: The Coach is indexed and regenerated whenever the Study Guide or Assessment are regenerated.

The indexing process, depending on the number and size of the selected resources, can take a long time. It is okay to leave the page and continue doing other work, while periodically checking back to review the status.

Generate the AI Study Guide

The AI-Generated Content section is empty until you select the AI Source Materials. With Source Materials in place, you will be able to index/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 Options to open a drop-down page of options for configuring the Study Guide content.
   
2. Configure the study guide. The Study Guide Generation Options list displays all of the possible content blocks that the AI tools can generate based on the selected source materials. Each option is described below.
   

Study Guide Configuration Options

3. When ready, click Generate. The AI Study Guide will then index the source material and generate a guide to your desired configuration.
4. After the Study Guide generates, you then see several options:
   • Options lets you update the Study Guide configuration and content if you do not like the current view.
   • 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.
     
5. 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. It will display as Text but if you open the file location and bring it into Notepad or other text editor, you can access the source HTML.
   • 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. The Study Guide will not appear in the Resource Library as a resource. Any edits must take place from the AI tools on the self-study course.

Generate and Test the AI Coach

The AI Coach “chatbot” will automatically generate upon successful generation of an AI Study Guide or AI Assessment. This is a dedicated learning coach for a specific course and operates in a similar manner as the portal-wide Learning Assistant chatbot.

To view the Coach and test chatting with it, click View.

1. View is only a preview of a Coach session. Enter a question in the Ask about this course… box and click Send.
2. Start a new conversation by clicking +New Conversation.
3. Close the preview tab to return to the AI tools page.
4. Click Regenerate, as desired, to regenerate the Coach AI knowledge base.

Generate the AI Assessment

The AI Assessment can be indexed and generated after successful adding the AI Source Materials. Prior to generation, you must determine the scoring and other parameters around the assessment. Like Study Guide, indexing takes place at the beginning of the request to Generate or Regenerate the assessment.

Key Notes about the AI Assessment:

• When Assessments are enabled/displayed, the Completion Type automatically updates to Assessment Verification  and learners pass or fail based solely on the completion of the assessment.
• AI generates Test Objective 1 and associated questions based on the indexed materials
• Assessments can be customized, but note that regeneration of the assessment based on new material will refresh Objective 1 and the original questions under it and any earlier edits will be lost. Regeneration does not removed additional objectives or questions under them that were manually added.

To Configure the Assessment

1. In the AI Content Section under Assessment, click Options.
2. Use the defaults provided or modify the scoring and other generation options:
   1. Enter the Passing Score as a percentage.
   2. Enter the Number of Questions you want to be associated with the assessment. This is like a question pool.
   3. Enter the Questions Served Per Attempt. This is the number of questions to pull from the pool for each attempt at completing the assessment.
   4. Enter the maximum possible Answers per Question you want to generate.
   5. Check/uncheck the boxes for Included Question Types to include/exclude True/False or Multiple Answer questions. For Multiple answer questions, the AI generation may include multiple choice or multiple answers in the question list.
   6. Click Generate to produce the Assessment. This may take some time, but it will continue processing even if you leave the page to work elsewhere in the LMS.
      
3. After generation, you have new Actions available.
   1. Click View to preview the assessment.
   2. Click Edit to open the assessment in a version of the same tool used to create standalone Assessment delivery method courses in the LMS. Note that the assessment you are editing here is a Self-Study course. Save any changes you make and click back to the Course AI Tools tab.
   3. If, based on changing source content, you need to regenerate the Assessment, on the Options section, click Regenerate. 
      Note: Regeneration will overwrite Objective 1 and any questions under it. Manual edits made under Objective 1 will be lost. If you created additional Objectives with their own questions, these are not impacted by regeneration.
      

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.
  • Assessment: Move the slider right to include an Assessment tab in the course view.
  • Coach: Move the slider right to include a Coach 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-generated learning objects 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 Coach tab allows the student to ask questions about the content with an AI chatbot.
• The Assessments tab lets them take a test to determine whether they pass or fail the course.
• The Resources tab lists the course’s attached resources for opening or download.