Tell us which course you have in mind. We’ll discuss a specialized agent that uses instructor-approved materials to give students help with that course. Your institution sets the boundaries, and the instructor reviews its answers.
Explore the Virtual Teaching Assistant with your faculty team, then choose a focused course pilot to learn what works for your students.
1. Start with one course
Choose the course, its materials, and what the agent should help students with.
2. Test it with students
Let students ask questions about their coursework, then review the agent’s answers with the instructor.
3. Take what you learn forward
Improve the agent based on what you see and decide whether to try it in more courses.
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FAQ
Before you plan a one-course pilot
Everything you need to know about Virtual Teaching Assistant.
What does the Virtual Teaching Assistant do?
It helps students ask questions about instructor-approved course materials. It can explain concepts, help students find relevant information, and point them toward an appropriate next step. It does not replace the instructor or make academic decisions.
How does it work inside the learning management system?
Students can access the Virtual Teaching Assistant from within the course experience in:
Canvas Blackboard D2L Brightspace
The assistant uses approved course files from the LMS, so students can get help without leaving the environment they already use for the course.
How does it stay current when course materials change?
The assistant’s course knowledge can be updated from the approved files in the LMS as those materials change. During pilot planning, your team confirms which content is included, how updates are handled, and what happens when a file is removed or replaced.
Can the assistant give an incorrect answer?
Like any AI system, it can make mistakes. The pilot should test representative student questions, keep answers grounded in the selected course materials, and give the assistant a clear response when the available content does not support an answer. Faculty review remains essential.
How does the pilot address academic integrity?
The instructor defines what the assistant may help with and where the boundaries are. It should support understanding, navigation, and practice—not complete graded work for students or override the instructor’s course policies.
How much control does the instructor have?
The instructor selects the course materials, defines the assistant’s purpose, reviews how it responds, and identifies questions that should be directed to a person. The pilot can be refined based on what the instructor and students experience.
What student information does the pilot require?
The pilot should use only the access and student information required for the approved course experience. The exact data, permissions, retention rules, and review process should be defined with your LMS, privacy, security, and academic teams before students receive access.
What institutional controls and review materials are available?
Your institution controls which courses use the assistant, which materials it can access, who can use it, and what it is allowed to help students with. Role-based access, instructor-defined guardrails, activity records, faculty review, and human escalation help keep the instructor in control.
Available review materials include:
-Completed SOC 2 Type II report -ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification documentation -HECVAT -VPAT and WCAG documentation -FERPA documentation -FedRAMP-compatible architecture information -Materials supporting HIPAA and CMMC review -LMS integration and data-access documentation
The relevant requirements depend on the course, the student information involved, and your institution’s deployment and data-retention policies.
What should we evaluate during the pilot?
Review answer quality, source grounding, the questions students ask, where the assistant needs correction, and whether faculty and students find the experience useful. The goal is to learn from one course before deciding whether the assistant should be refined, expanded, or stopped.
