This information applies only to the Ultra Course View.

About AI Conversation

AI Conversation is a Socratic questioning exercise guided by AI. AI Conversation lets students explore their thoughts on a topic and are not meant to confirm or deny any student input. 

For administrators: In the building block, ‘AI Design Assistant and Unsplash,' the option for ‘AI Chat Conversation’ is available. The default state is 'off.'  When this feature is ‘on,’ the privilege needs to be assigned to course roles as necessary, such as Instructor. The privilege that needs to be assigned is ‘Use AI Design Assistant.' When that role creates an AI Conversation in a course that’s visible to students, students will be able to complete the activity. 
Toggling this feature to ‘off’ after deployment will stop the AI Conversation services. Therefore, any AI conversation activities visible to students will not operate as expected.

There are two elements to the AI Conversation activity:

  • AI Conversation 
    • This lets students think critically about the topic that the instructor designs.
  • Reflection question 
    • This asks the student to share their thoughts on the activity. The reflection question also lets the student flag any bias or errors from the AI as part of our Trustworthy AI Approach. Reflection helps students understand the responsible use of AI services. 

Create an AI Conversation

Go to the Create Item dropdown by selecting the plus sign anywhere on the Course Content page.

Course Content page with the Create Item dropdown expanded

Scroll through the item type options until you reach AI Conversation under Participation and Engagement.

Create Item panel, displaying AI Conversation at the bottom of Participation and Engagement

Customize an AI Conversation

Enter a topic of conversation in the content field. Make sure that your topic is open-ended and doesn't have a right or wrong answer.

AI Conversation Creation page

Now, select a persona for the AI Conversation. You can provide your own image, use Unsplash, or generate an image for the persona's avatar. Enter a name for the persona and briefly describe the persona occupation, personality, or mood. You can also adjust the complexity of the persona's responses.

Select Save when you're finished. You can preview the AI Conversation as a student and interact with the AI persona by selecting Preview chat. Previewing allows you to check that the AI persona is behaving as expected. 

Preview of student display of an AI conversation

You can edit the reflection question to guide your students on how best to reflect on the activity.

Review student interactions

On submission, you can review the AI conversation transcript and your students' reflections. The AI Conversation is a formative assessment by default, but you’re not restricted to this option.

Grading page for an AI conversation

You have the option of reviewing general student activity for the assessmen by selecting the Student Activity tab. Visit the "Student Activity Details for Assessments" topic to learn more about this feature.