How to Author BusyBee Chat Activities

In Chat settings, you provide guidelines and content for how BusyBee should interact with the student in the activity. All chat types have a shared set of standard fields for you to complete and some have additional fields specific to that type.

For all chat types:

1. The type of chat you added is included in the Chat settings header (Interview in this example).
2. Conversation topic is a short description required to help BusyBee understand the conversation's context and purpose. The topic could be:
   • A scenario - Interviewing a professional about their career in veterinary medicine.
   • A concept to explore - Exploring cellular respiration and photosynthesis.
   • A skill to practice - Debating the pros and cons of school uniforms.
3. First message from BusyBee lets you create first message used in the chat for every student. This is optional but  it can help support the purpose and structure of the conversation.
4. Grade level informs the complexity of language, concepts, and scaffolding used in the activity. BusyBee also adapts to the student during the conversation..
   • If your school uses OneRoster to create courses, you can also set a course grade level. When set using standard CEDS values, this grade level will apply to activities that don't have one set here.
5. Language allows you to set a specific language for the conversation.
6. Check Allow students to upload files to let students upload files for BusyBee to review.
   • Allowed file types: PDFs, text files (.txt), or Google docs (where sharing permissions are set for anyone with a link). BusyBee reads text only (no images).
7. In Additional instructions to guide BusyBee, you can tell BusyBee how to act and what to do in the chat. This is not required and work alongside your other settings if added.
   • Learn more about BusyBee instructions
8. You can Add evaluation rubric. Students can ask BusyBee to evaluate their performance in the conversation. Teachers can review them and get their own summary of these evaluations for all students. Adding a rubric helps focus feedback on your goals.
9. Select Preview at any time while authoring to test the chat.

Chat characters are predefined profiles with names, images, and descriptions. When added to a chat, BusyBee takes on that character's personality and background for the conversation.

Once you have created characters with Course settings, you can add them to an activity:

1. In Chat characters, select Add character.

2. Select a Character.

3. Select Add character. If you add more than one character, the student is able to choose which character they want to chat with.

Add sources to inform the conversation.

1. Select Add source to choose a PDF, text file, or website as a source. BusyBee reads only text (no images).
2. When you add a source, the How sources influence BusyBee field appears. Use it to indicate how strongly the sources should influence BusyBee's responses (No preference, Sources preferred, Sources strongly preferred).
3. Websites are processed at the time they are added as a source. A Last processed date is included with sources to make it easy to identify how current they are.
   • If changes are made to a website after you've added it as a source, you can select Reprocess sources so those changes are reflected in the activity.
   • BusyBee also checks the last processed date for website sources when Chats are played, and if it is older than 30 days, it is automatically reprocessed.

Every BusyBee Chat is prompted to stay within general educational guidelines and act as an educational guide. In addition to this, they are informed by the settings selected and sources provided when authoring the chat.

The BusyBee instructions field in Chat settings gives you the opportunity to add to the prompts already included in the chat.

• In Custom chats, these instructions can be very important if you want it to create a specific kind of learning experience, but they aren't required. If you don't provide instructions, BusyBee will use the other settings and sources to ask the student questions about the purpose of the chat.
• In the other Chat types, BusyBee has a built-in prompt designed to meet the needs of that type. You can still add instructions, but they aren't always necessary.

Here's a simple framework to use when creating BusyBee instructions:

1. Start by telling BusyBee what role it should take (often with "You are...").
2. Explain what you want it to do and what it should avoid.
3. Finish by describing how it should behave or communicate.

If you want a Custom chat to work as a study partner, for example, you could use the following instructions:

You are a student peer and study partner. Take turns asking each other questions about the topic. Encourage the student to explain their thinking, and ask follow-up questions to deepen understanding. Don't overcomplicate concepts. Keep the tone casual and supportive.

Select Choose Objective to align the activity with one or more objectives.

With Visibility and access settings, you can choose to:  

1. Make the activity Visible to:
   • Students, teachers and observers: This is the default setting for activities intended for students to complete.
   • Teachers and observers: This setting works well for Lesson Guide materials that observers like parents, mentors, etc. need access to. A map icon appears next to these activities in the Activities pages for teachers and observers.
   • Teachers only: This setting works well for Lesson Guide materials that only teachers need. A map icon appears next to these activities in the teacher Activities page.
2. Check the Hide from student's table of contents and to-do list box. Note that it is still accessible with course links and bookmarks unless otherwise restricted.
3. Check the Block access until student completes other activity box.
   • If it appears, you can check the Require passing score if gradable for mastery (optional).
   • Select Choose Activity, and select the activity or activities that you want to make access dependent on.
4. Check the Block access until student masters objective(s) box, select Choose Objective, and select the objective(s) you want to make access dependent on.
5. Check the Block access until a specified date box and enter the desired date and time.
   • This can also be managed in the Editor > Scheduling screen.
6. Check the Student must enter a password box, and enter the desired Activity password in the field.
   • By default students must enter this password only once, and can access the activity without entering the password thereafter.
   • If you want, you can check the Require password each visit to override the default.
   • Note: Students can be excused from this setting for a specified amount of time by an administrator as part of their Accommodations. Overriding this setting for a student can be useful in a situation where passwords are provided during class, but a student is unable to attend for a period of time.

Select Choose Badge to select one or more badges that you want automatically awarded to students who successfully complete this activity.

Learn more:

• How to Award Badges
• Create Course Badges

Admins can create custom Metadata fields for activities in their domain. This content is only visible to teachers, course authors, etc. and provides further insight into an activity, such as:

• An activity Description for course authors.
• An idea of how this activity fits into the goal of the course or the Big Picture.
• Essential Questions that should be answered by the activity or that students should keep in mind as they complete it.
• Any relevant Vocabulary.
• Associated Resources.

Some of the fields under Metadata ask for content that, if set up by your system admin, can be used to make an activity searchable in the Digital Library. Contact your system admin to find out if there are fields in your domain that can be used this way.

Manage Advanced activity options, like:

1. Changing the activity's folder Location using the dropdown.
2. Giving the activity a new Activity ID in the field.