UMD Virtual Study Assistant is a feature in ELMS-Canvas created by the DIT AI Solutions team. The UMD Virtual Study Assistant is a Generative AI chatbot that scans ELMS-Canvas course content and provides context-aware responses to student inquiries. Students can ask questions about anything in your course. Instructors control the content on which the Virtual Study Assistant is trained. Instructors have access to a configuration dashboard and choose which content is scanned.

This guide will show you how to set up the Virtual Study Assistant for your course in four steps:

• Set up an Virtual Study Assistant for your course
• Use the Admin Console, the web interface for managing your Virtual Study Assistant
• Delete an Virtual Study Assistant when it’s no longer needed

Setting up Virtual Study Assistant

Before setting up an Virtual Study Assistant, ensure your syllabus is uploaded to ELMS-Canvas. The setup process can't proceed without it.

1. The Virtual Study Assistant is enabled for each course individually. In your ELMS-Canvas Course space, select the Virtual Study Assistant from the course navigation list. 
   
2. The Virtual Study Assistant setup screen will load and display an introduction with key details about the integration. Beneath the introduction is a configuration panel. Further down, you will see a list of ELMS-Canvas resources and an associated checkbox. The resources with a selected checkbox represent your course content that will be used to train the Virtual Study Assistant. These settings may be changed at any point. A syllabus is required to complete the Virtual Study Assistant setup and must be selected. 
   
   
   
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4. The configuration panel allows you to include available resources from the source content.
   • The Virtual Study Assistant will only be trained on content that is visible to students, regardless of the resources selected.
   • For example, content in a module that isn’t visible to students will not be used by the Virtual Study Assistant until the content has been made available to students.
   • Instructional technology specialists within DIT are available for consultations to share best practices for course space design that leverage the capabilities of Virtual Study Assistants.
   • Contact itsupport@umd.edu to request an Virtual Study Assistant Consultation, and you will be linked to an appointment calendar with availability.
5. The instructor designing the ELMS-Canvas course space typically serves as the default administrator for the Virtual Study Assistant. In the Add Additional Authorized Users section of the configuration page, you can configure additional Virtual Study Assistant admins (Authorized Users) by selecting the checkbox next to a list of course personnel (co-instructors, TAs, course designers, etc.).
   • All Authorized Users (administrators) are responsible for managing the Virtual Study Assistant and will have access to all configuration settings for the tool.
   • If you have questions about administration, contact the DIT AI Solutions team at dit-ais@umd.edu.
6. When you have finished configuring the Virtual Study Assistant settings for your course, select Create Study Assistant. This will start the setup process.
   • A Creating Virtual Study Assistant... loading screen will appear and will indicate when your Virtual Study Assistant is ready.
   • Expand the Advanced Options menu by selecting the Advanced Options label. This will list additional features, including links to the Admin Console and instructor management.
     

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The Admin Console

As the course owner in ELMS-Canvas, you can assign administrative access to any member of your teaching staff, such as co-instructors, TAs, or course designers. These administrators help manage the Virtual Study Assistant for your course.

While ELMS-Canvas supports a limited set of administrative actions, the full range of features is available through the external Admin Console. To access it, select Visit the Admin Console under Advanced Options in ELMS-Canvas.

Alternatively, you can access the Admin Console directly at admin.chatbot.umd.edu. Make sure you're logged in with your university ID to gain access. The Admin Console includes a wide range of features—more than we can cover here. This guide highlights only the most relevant ones. For detailed instructions on administering your Virtual Study Assistant, please refer to the full documentation.

Begin exploring the Virtual Agent Config

1. Select Virtual Agent Config from the navigation sidebar in the Admin Console. This section includes various configuration options.
   
2. As you scroll down, you’ll find a section labeled Connectors. Connectors link the Virtual Study Assistant to external information sources, such as ELMS-Canvas.
3. Once you scroll to the ELMS-Canvas subsection, the interface will display the resources from the course that are used for the Virtual Study Assistant.
   
4. In the Actions column, you’ll see either an X or a checkmark. Selecting the X will exclude that ELMS-Canvas resource from being scanned by the Virtual Study Assistant, and its background will change from white to gray to indicate it’s inactive. Conversely, selecting the checkmark will enable scanning for that content in that resource by the Virtual Study Assistant.

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Frequency of Virtual Study Assistant scans

Virtual Study Assistant scans ELMS-Canvas resources just after midnight, so any changes will be visible to the students until the following day. If you don’t want to wait for the usual overnight update, you can force a scan to happen right away in the Virtual Agent Config section of the Admin Console. Learn more about this in: Virtual Study Assistant: Admin Console Guide.

Course ID

Underneath the list of resources is the Course ID. The Course ID is automatically filled out if you created the Virtual Study Assistant using ELMS-Canvas. This course ID refers to an ID within ELMS-Canvas. 

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Deleting an Virtual Study Assistant

If you no longer wish to have an Virtual Study Assistant in your ELMS-Canvas course, you can delete it. This will not only remove the Virtual Study Assistant from your ELMS-Canvas page but also permanently delete all associated content, including student questions and configuration settings.

1. Select the Virtual Study Assistant link at the bottom of the navigation sidebar.
2. Expand the Advanced Options.
3. Click Delete Study Assistant.
   
   

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Additional resources

Learn more about the Admin Console in this article. You can email the DIT AI Solutions Team with further questions: dit-ais@umd.edu.

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