What AskOS does
Each term the same questions land on the same desks. When is the assignment due? What is the attendance rule? How do I apply for an extension? Where can I find the course handbook? None of them takes long to answer, but added up they consume a large part of the week for program offices and faculty.
AskOS answers these questions for learners and faculty from the documents your institution supplies, such as handbooks, course information, academic calendars and policies. You see the source for every answer. If a request needs a person, AskOS passes it to the right member of staff.
A chatbot for students, built on three rules
With a chatbot in education, most of the risk sits in answers nobody can trace. AskOS is designed so you can trace every answer and a person keeps every decision.
Only your documents
AskOS uses only the documents your institution provides. It does not draw on the open internet or general knowledge. If your handbook puts a deadline on Friday, Friday is what the learner hears. When the documents do not cover a question, AskOS should not make up an answer, and you decide during setup how it responds instead, for example by pointing the learner to a contact.
The source for every answer
Each AskOS answer shows where it came from. Learners can open the original text and check it, and staff reviewing a conversation can see which document the answer used. Errors are easy to trace as a result. A wrong answer usually means the source document is out of date, and correcting the document corrects the answer.
A handoff when a person is needed
Some requests ask for a decision. An extension, an exception to a rule or a personal circumstance has to be decided by a person, so AskOS sends those requests to the right member of staff and does not answer them itself. The learner reaches a person, and staff receive the request without having to field the routine questions first.
A university chatbot for policy questions
Policy questions are where a university chatbot can help most and also do the most damage. If a learner gets a wrong answer about an attendance rule, a resubmission policy or an appeal deadline, it can cost them real time. For that reason AskOS answers only from your documents, shows its source and leaves decisions to people.
A university policy chatbot built this way gives the institution:
- Accuracy comes from your documents. As long as the handbook is current, AskOS answers from the current version. You decide how often documents are refreshed.
- Accountability stays with staff. AskOS explains what a policy says, and a person decides how it applies to a particular case.
- Consistency across the institution. Learners who ask the same question get an answer from the same source, whichever office they would have contacted otherwise.
Educational chatbot examples: questions AskOS handles
The educational chatbot examples below show the questions AskOS answers from institutional documents and the requests it passes to staff:
- Course questions. What topics does this module cover? Where are the reading materials? What does the course handbook say about group work?
- Deadline questions. When is the assignment due? When does registration close? When are results published?
- Policy questions. What is the attendance requirement? What is the policy on late submissions? How does the resubmission process work?
- Requests for staff. I need an extension. I want to discuss my mark. I have a personal circumstance to report. AskOS sends each of these to the right person.
Faculty can use AskOS as well, asking about academic policies, calendars and procedures and getting answers from the same documents. What a college chatbot can answer depends entirely on the documents your institution provides.
An AI assistant for students about their institution
Plenty of AI chatbots for students are general assistants that will answer anything using any source. AskOS was designed for a narrower job. It is an AI assistant for students about their own institution, covering its courses, deadlines and policies, with answers drawn from its own documents and the source shown.
So AskOS is an AI student support chatbot rather than a homework helper. It never answers from the open internet. Its job is to tell a learner what the institution’s documents say and who to ask when they need a person.
What AskOS does not do
- It does not decide. Staff handle extensions, exceptions and appeals.
- It does not answer from outside sources. It uses only the documents your institution provides.
- It does not replace your support team. It takes the routine questions so staff have time for the requests that need them.
- It does not judge learners. AskOS answers questions and never assesses a learner’s character, emotions or intentions.
How to choose a chatbot for educational institutions
When you compare chatbots for universities and colleges, these questions help you tell a useful tool from a risky one. Put them to every vendor, us included:
- Where do answers come from? Are they drawn only from your documents, or from general sources you cannot control?
- Is the source shown? Can a learner check the original text behind each answer?
- What happens when a person is needed? Does the request go to the right staff member, or does the chatbot try to answer everything?
- How do answers stay current? What happens after a policy changes?
- Who is it for? Is it only for learners, or for faculty and staff too?
- Does it connect to the rest of teaching? Does it share sign-in and data with your course and teaching tools?
An AI chatbot for education that handles these well cuts down on repeat questions and keeps decisions with the people accountable for them. In higher education, that accountability matters more than anything else the tool does.
Where AskOS fits in AcademicOS
AskOS takes care of questions about courses, deadlines and policies, and the other AcademicOS products cover teaching:
- With the AI-powered teaching assistant, faculty plan sessions, draft questions and rubrics and review feedback suggestions.
- Courses are designed in Studio, our AI course creator, and run either on the AI-powered learning management system built into AcademicOS or on your current LMS.
Every AcademicOS product shares sign-in and data, so you can begin with AskOS and add the others later.
Frequently asked questions
Where do AskOS answers come from?
Only from the documents your institution provides, such as handbooks, course information, academic calendars and policies. Each answer shows its source so learners and staff can check the original text. AskOS never answers from the open internet, and it passes requests that need a person, such as an extension, to the right member of staff.
What happens when a learner asks for something AskOS cannot decide?
AskOS sends the request to the right member of staff. Extensions, rule exceptions and personal circumstances need a person’s decision, so AskOS does not answer them by itself. The request goes straight to staff, who now spend less time on the routine questions AskOS has already answered from your documents.
Can AskOS act as a university policy chatbot?
Yes. AskOS answers policy questions about things like attendance rules, late submission policies and resubmission procedures, using your institution’s policy documents and showing the source. It explains what the policy says, while a member of staff decides how it applies to a specific case. AskOS routes those cases to the right person.
Is AskOS only a chatbot for students?
No, it answers questions for learners and faculty. Learners ask about courses, deadlines and policies, and faculty can ask about academic policies, calendars and procedures, all answered from the same institutional documents. Either way the source is shown, and any request that needs a person goes to the right member of staff.
How do we keep AskOS answers accurate when policies change?
AskOS works from the documents your institution provides, so its answers are only as current as those documents. Update the document when a policy changes and AskOS will answer from the new version. Since every answer shows its source, staff can quickly trace a wrong answer back to the document that needs fixing.
Does AskOS help students with homework or assignments?
AskOS is designed to answer questions about your institution and does not write assignments. It answers from documents your institution provides, such as course information, handbooks, calendars and policies, and shows the source. It is a good fit for questions about what a course covers or when work is due. Requests that need a person go to the right member of staff.