BusyBee's Get Help tool is a real-time, interactive tutoring tool designed to support students by providing tailored guidance based on the activity's content, objectives, and any additional instructions course authors include.
Like a skilled tutor, Get Help adapts to the student's reading level and facilitates active learning, prompting students with thoughtful questions rather than just giving answers. This engaging back-and-forth fosters curiosity and encourages critical thinking, which students can access anytime for ongoing support.
BusyBee Chats are a Pearson Connexus Add-on
If you are interested in trying BusyBee Chats, reach out to your District Success Partner.
This article covers how:
Students Enhance Their Learning With Get Help
Automated and Manual Monitoring Help Keep Students Safe
Teachers Leverage Get Help to Support Learning and Instruction
Teachers can Optimize Get Help to Work With Various Activity Types
Teachers Can Preview Get Help and Review and Monitor Student Conversations
Students Enhance Their Learning With Get Help
When the Get Help tool is available for an activity type and enabled for that activity, it appears in the BusyBee AI Study Tools menu.
- Click the sparkle icon in the toolbar to open BusyBee AI Study Tools.
- Select Get Help.
- A chat panel opens where you can ask questions and explore the activity with BusyBee.
- From the Actions menu to the right of the message field, you can:
- Reset the conversation to end it and start a new one.
- Select past reset conversations to review them.
- Click the back arrow at any time return to the other Study Tools. Your conversation is saved, so you can return and continue learning.
Automated and Manual Monitoring Help Keep Students Safe
Get Help conversations include automated and manual monitoring features to help keep students safe. When inappropriate content is identified, the student conversation is blocked, the student is provided a reason for the block and gentle redirection, and teachers are automatically notified in case support is needed.
When a conversation is blocked, students can Dispute the block if they think it was an error and Reset the conversation to start again.
Students can enhance learning with Get Help:
- Clarify concepts: Ask BusyBee direct questions about topics or vocabulary you find confusing. This way, you avoid getting stuck and can keep making progress.
- Explore interests: Delve deeper into ideas from the activity that interest you. BusyBee can guide you through related topics for a richer learning experience.
- Cross-subject learning: Discuss how the content connects to other subjects you are studying, encouraging a broader understanding of the material.
- Brainstorm strategies: Use BusyBee to brainstorm study approaches or project ideas to gain deeper insights.
- Use chosen language: BusyBee will respond to students in the language they use, regardless of the language used in the activity.
Teachers Leverage Get Help to Support Learning and Instruction
Think of Get Help as a teaching companion that promotes inquiry-based learning and ensures students have access to help whenever they need.
Teachers can Optimize Get Help to Work With Various Activity Types
For supported activity types, BusyBee generates Get Help responses by using, not only the activity's content, but also the aligned objectives and any content provided in the activity's Description field which isn't visible to students.
This means that Get Help can easily work with activities that aren't text-based or where there isn't enough text for BusyBee to use, such as videos, interactive images, gamification, LTI, and more.
While designing activities, make sure to utilize these content sources effectively to maximize the tool's potential for supporting students.
Learn more about authoring activities: Activity Types
Teachers Can Preview Get Help and Review and Monitor Student Conversations
When previewing an activity from the Activities tool or activity editor, teachers can:
- Try Get Help to see how it works for their students.
- Review student conversations with Get Help.
- Monitor student conversations to support safe usage.
Learn more: How to Preview, Review, and Monitor BusyBee Chats
Teachers can leverage Get Help for instruction:
- Review student interactions: Access students' Get Help conversations to identify any learning challenges they face and adapt your teaching where appropriate.
- Discover student interests: Examine the topics that students engage with in their Get Help chats, and use this insight to create more targeted and engaging lessons.
- Refine activities: Use Get Help during activity previews to see how it responds and fine-tune your materials for better learning outcomes.
- Facilitate classroom discussions: Use Get Help with your class to model how students can use their own curiosity to learn and see challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles.
- Enhance your own understanding: Use Get Help to broaden your own understanding, or to refresh your memory before a class.
Get Help can be enabled for the following Activity types:
- Assessments
- Assignments
-
Custom activities that use the following source content:
- Rich text
- Course resources
- External website URLs (e.g., YouTube videos, LTI activities)
- Note: BusyBee Get Help does not access content from external websites. For best results, add a Description and/or Objectives to the activity.
To generate the best responses, Get Help requires at least 50 words of total, relevant content to be present between the following items in an activity:
- The activity's Content field
- Aligned learning objectives
- The activity's Description field
- Assessment questions in assessments
- The html template file in assessment templates
Parents and Other Observers Support Learning With Get Help
Parents and other observers can easily view their students' Get Help interactions by visiting the activity in the Observer app and clicking Get Help when it appears for supported activities.
Observers can support learning with Get Help
- Monitor learning progress: See where a student may need extra help and provide support accordingly.
- Encourage interests: Discover which concepts or topics are capturing the student's attention to further nurture those interests.
- Collaborative learning: Engage with the student using Get Help as a conversation starter to discuss the subject matter together.
- Enhance your own understanding: Use Get Help to broaden your own understanding.