Students get stuck at ten at night, and office hours are on Tuesday.
Where it breaks down:
The same few concepts come up again and again, especially before exams.
TAs and instructors re-explain the same material.
Students get stuck outside office hours.
A small confusion waits days, and grows.
General answers from the web don't use your course's terms.
Students learn a version of the idea that doesn't match how you teach it.
We started from how a good TA explains something: in the course's own words, one step at a time.
- Most questions are about a handful of concepts the course already covers.
- A student gets more from a step-by-step walk-through than from a paragraph.
- Explaining a concept is different from doing the assignment, and the instructor should set that line.
The agent had to:
- Answer only from the materials the instructor provides.
- Explain step by step, and check the student's understanding.
- Never complete graded work, and never discuss an individual's grades.
A RevAIvo Voice agent that works as the course's voice teaching assistant.
Your materials, your terms
Answers from the course materials you provide, using the course's own notation and examples.
Step by step
Walks the student through a concept in small steps and checks understanding along the way, instead of reading out a paragraph.
Consent first
The first text carries the section of the course materials the answer drew on, and asks the student to confirm they would like text updates for this course. Later texts go only to students who confirm.
Boundaries you set
Explains concepts and points to sources without completing graded assignments. Grades, extensions, and integrity questions go to the instructor.
It brings in your instructor when…
Scoped narrow on purpose. Where you've set a number it can connect the caller; otherwise it logs a callback request for the instructor.
- The student asks for the answer to a graded assignment or exam question.
- The student asks about their grade, or wants one reviewed.
- The student asks for an extension or an accommodation.
- The student raises an academic integrity question.
- The question goes beyond the course materials.
- The student asks for a person.
What the call sounds like
I still don't get the difference between a mean and a median. Can you explain it again?
Sure. The mean is the average: add up all the values and divide by how many there are. The median is the middle value when you line them up in order. Take five salaries: 40, 45, 50, 55, and 400 thousand. The mean is 118 thousand, but the median is 50. Which one says more about a typical person here?
The median, because that one big number pulls the mean up.
Exactly. That's why skewed data is usually described with the median. It's in chapter 3 of your course notes. When we hang up I'll text you that section with a few practice problems. The text will also ask you to confirm you'd like text updates for this course, and I won't send more unless you do.
Great, thanks.
Sent after the call
Hi, this is the Hartwell College STAT 101 course line. Here is the section on mean and median from your course notes, with practice problems: hartwell.example.org/stat101/notes-3. Tap to confirm you'd like text updates for this course: hartwell.example.org/stat101/texts. To stop texts at any time: hartwell.example.org/stop
Thanks for calling the STAT 101 course line. Here is the section of your course notes on mean and median, with practice problems: hartwell.example.org/stat101/notes-3. For anything about grades or deadlines, see Professor Marlowe in office hours.
The first text asks the student to confirm they would like text updates for this course. Later texts go only to students who confirm. Messages go out when the call ends, and the wording is illustrative.
What changes for your team
An illustrative scenario:
Say your team handles 400 student questions a month, and the agent takes 40% of them end to end, at an assumed 5 minutes a call. These figures are assumptions for illustration, not customer results.
In a pilot we measure this with you, on your own calls in RevAIvo Pulse: calls connected, how each call ended, and how many needed a callback.
A student who gets unstuck at the hour they are stuck, in your course's own terms, with the right section in hand.
Repeat questions handled, and your TAs freed for feedback and the students who need a person.