Artificial Intelligence Virtual Tutor Initiative
June 2024
Program Information
This initiative will enable successful applicants to co-develop a Virtual Tutor in the form of a chatbot to support student learning in courses offered in the fall term of 2024. This pilot will explore one type of use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in teaching and learning. Participating instructors will be engaged with support staff and a cohort of peers during the design, deployment and evaluation phases of their project to extend our shared understanding of this new domain.
Applications are invited from programs and instructors who are interested in experimenting with the creation of a Virtual Tutor grounded in their program/course content. The Virtual Tutors for this pilot will be designed for engagement with the course content and its application within the discipline. While a range of platforms are being explored, it is anticipated that Microsoft Co-pilot Studio will be the technology used for this initiative.
Given current issues related to the reliability of the technology, this initiative will not support the use of chatbots for administrative assistance for students such as answering questions about course information or registration processes.
Content availability and preparation
The Virtual Tutor chatbots created as part of this program will be tailored to course materials leveraging Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to provide responses to student questions. As such, instructors submitting applications must have a robust corpus of course materials that could be used to ground the responses provided by the Virtual Tutor, such as comprehensive course handouts, transcripts of recorded lectures, and open source digital textbooks (with the appropriate creative commons license). Copyrighted materials, such as commercial textbooks, cannot be used. Priority will be given to applicants who have text-based materials, as graphics-based content and mathematical formulas are harder to work with at this stage of GenAI development. Project teams (the primary recipients and other partners) must attend an orientation meeting which includes training on how to organize content into a suitable format content. Attendance at this introductory session is required to ensure material is properly prepared to produce relevant Virtual Tutor outputs that are as accurate as possible.
Selection criteria
Priority will be given to teams of instructors teaching multiple courses with overlapping content, to optimize access and impact of resources invested on student learning. However, applications will be accepted from individuals developing a chatbot for one course as well. Selection criteria include:
- Number of students who may benefit
- Readiness of appropriate content
- Representation from diverse teaching contexts
Willingness of the instructor to put in the time needed to work with the support team to build and test
Eligibility and Expectations
Proposals will be accepted from University of Toronto faculty with continuing appointments interested in creating a chat system in a for-credit course(s).
Staff and librarians may partner on an application with a faculty member with continuing status, so long as the primary beneficiary of the proposed Virtual Tutor are students in for-credit courses and programs.
Instructor(s) must be teaching the candidate course in the fall 2024 term.
The following are required activities for successful applicants:
- Participate in a virtual orientation session that will include content preparation training on Thursday July 11 from 12:30 – 2:00 pm
- Submit an interim checkpoint survey in October 2024, and a final project report in December 2024 describing the challenges and opportunities observed during project implementation.
- Participate in focus group and evaluation activities to provide insight on experiences that will inform institutional planning in January 2025.
Additional details will be provided if your application is successful.
Benefits
For planning purposes, a rough estimate suggests a Virtual Tutor can cost about $5/student for a single semester. Successful applicants will have the operational costs for their Virtual Tutor covered by this program for the fall 2024 term.
Note: If continued use of the Virtual Tutor is anticipated beyond the pilot program period, participating instructors will need to identify a sustainability model beyond the funded semester including confirmation in writing of departmental funds to sustain the virtual tutor beyond fall term 2024.
Application Process
Applications will be accepted until July 2, 2024. Up to five applicants will be approved for the initiative. Successful applicants will be notified by July 4, 2024. Eligible candidates not selected for this cohort will be placed in a pool of potential candidates for future initiatives or an extension of the current pilot activities. Please complete the Artificial Intelligence Virtual Tutor Initiative form by July 2, 2024. For additional information on this initiative please contact digital.learning@utoronto.ca.
This initiative is sponsored by the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (CTSI) and Information Technology Services (ITS).