Clemson University

Educators today are tasked with instructional design, teaching, research, and a myriad of other tasks related to teaching and learning that can unintentionally leave students feeling unsupported. Understanding the need to bridge this teaching-learning gap, a Clemson University professor found a way to provide students with 24-7 access to educational support. How? Generative AI.

By integrating Pria, a generative AI teaching assistant, into the Canvas learning management system (LMS), Clemson educators can give students around-theclock access to trusted educational support, freeing up more time to focus on pedagogy and student learning outcomes.

As one of the most productive public research universities in the nation, Clemson University focuses on preparing our students, educators, and researchers for global challenges like artificial intelligence.

While its use inside and outside the classroom has the ability to save educators and students time, concerns around data privacy and the overall efficacy of AI tools make it challenging for the Clemson community to test the AI waters. Generative AI tools like Chat GPT can pose significant risks as they rely on large language models that provide limited control over generated content, are inherently biased, can spread misinformation and hallucinate, lack emotional intelligence, and raise privacy and security concerns.

In learning about and experimenting with Pria in his Canvas courses and research, Professor Alex Feltus at Clemson University, realized that while this tool is designed with the same concept as ChatGPT – utilizing prompts – it’s different. Unlike most existing AI tools, Pria retrieves its answers from 28 trusted sources, provides citations for the information’s source, does not hallucinate, and integrates seamlessly with Canvas LMS.

Pria’s seamless integration with Canvas makes the tool convenient for educators. Plugging into Canvas, it supplements traditional and online teaching with 24/7 support for course materials, coding, discovery, image creation, and research. The AI mentor uses natural language processing to understand questions and GPT-4 Turbo (from Open AI) to choose the best combination of 28 trusted, cited sources to discover answers.

“We’re a bunch of educators who are working with real faculty and students and they’re telling us we’re not going to use this technology unless it is integrated into Canvas, has data privacy, and the answers are cited and trusted,” said David Clarke IV, CEO of Praxis AI. “Fortunately, Canvas is an extremely well-engineered product.”

Within roughly one week’s time, Canvas developers discovered two ways to integrate Pria into Canvas: through the typical LTI 1.3 where it’s an activity and users can click on the Pria module, or through a custom theme. With a little java code added to a custom theme in Canvas, Pria can appear magically [as an icon] for any student in any subaccount. which offers a much more immersive, engaging student experience.

“That wouldn’t have been made possible if it wasn’t for the well-designed Canvas hierarchy around subaccounts and custom themes,” David said.

 

Within Canvas, individual faculty can have their own instance of Pria and the ability to customize the prompt in real time whenever they want to show up differently – changing its name, logo, personality and behavior.

Within Canvas, individual faculty can have their own instance of Pria and the ability to customize the prompt in real time whenever they want to show up differently – changing its name, logo, personality and behavior.

For Dr. Feltus, that means students can interact with Professor, a 19th century steampunk professor who likes science and follows Sherlock Holmes. In the spring, when Dr. Feltus delivers his Canvas course, students can navigate to the customized icon in the bottom right corner of their screens and interact with a digital twin of his that’s available 24-7. Having this teaching assistant takes load off of Dr. Feltus and fosters a more personal connection with students who get to interact with a digital version of their professor, not a random robot.

“There is a huge group of children right now who are experiencing extreme anxiety and fear of the future,” Dr. Feltus said. “I’d say about 25% of the children that I work with right now are terrified of being wrong. They’re terrified of asking me questions. But one of the most amazing things I’ve noticed is that I can tell a student who may have a medical excuse, “If you’re having a hard time reaching out, you can talk to Pria. There’s no judgment. There’s no fear,” he said. Dr. Feltus explained that while some people may not want to work with something that is not human, some people can’t work with humans because of their medical state.

“It’s a way for students to learn and get out of their fear and perform well in school,” he said. “This is where digital education is not experiential or flat, but a place that’s safe for people to ask questions. I trust the results that they get from the AI, so it’s okay for them to do that.”

Using Canvas and Pria, Professor Feltus supports his hackathons, assists students within his genetics and biochemistry courses, and strengthens his research efforts. He has even added the AI tool to his syllabus.

“Pria is the co-instructor. She’s that good,” he said. “As the professor, I’m still spending as much time teaching, but a lot of my teaching-assistant-level tasks are offloaded to Pria.” When students get stuck on tiny details and can’t reach Dr. Feltus immediately, they can use Pria. “I asked the students, ‘Raise your hand if Pria is helping you,’ and everybody’s hand went up instantly,” said Dr. Feltus, who uses the tool beyond teaching. Within Canvas, individual faculty can have their own instance of Pria and the ability to customize the prompt in real time whenever they want to show up differently – changing its name, logo, personality and behavior.

“She is helping me do science,” he said. “I’ve published 130 papers and there’s so much more I don’t know that I want to learn. She is getting me to a new level as a professor. She’s getting the students to a new level.”

For example, Professor Feltus has brought together Clemson students and former alumni, friends and scientists for hackathons using Pria to understand and address problems. “Using digital education tools like Canvas, people can remotely learn together (classes) but also do hackathons,” Dr. Feltus said

In one hackathon, participants did research on the biochemistry of how a daily dose of cinnamon could be used to treat and reduce the number of seizures two young children would have in a day.

“Pria is unbelievable. It gives answers like I do, and gives me answers I’ve forgotten. We have this scalable platform with Canvas, this integrated AI, and we have the ability to scale out PhD-grade biotech training… real skills-based training based on research.

With 97% of all questions asked of Pria being on topic, students are staying focused on the course content. Across the institutions currently using the tool, 60-65% of all questions in a given course are answered by Pria. These are questions that either would have gone unanswered or put an extra load on the instructor.

Now that Clemson students can access support directly within the LMS where their courses and coursework live, instructors can spend more one-on-one time with students who really need it, work on curriculum, and focus on teaching in a more interactive way.

To learn more about Canvas and Pria, visit the Canvas Community.