StudyClues Student Guide
A quick step-by-step introduction for students
Welcome to StudyClues! This guide will walk you through how to use this tool to help you navigate your course this semester. To make it easier for you to review, we have divided up the guide into the following sections:
About StudyClues
StudyClues is a 24/7 chatbot designed to help you with your course studies. You can ask it questions about anything related to your course, and it will provide answers based on your course materials. This includes lecture recordings, files from your Learning Management System (LMS) like Canvas, and open-source textbooks that your instructor has uploaded to their course site. The goal is to give you a reliable study partner that is always available to answer your questions and discuss topics relevant to class.
A key feature of StudyClues is that every response includes clickable references that help to cite the information discussed. These references link back to videos and files from the course, allowing you to jump to a specific moment in a lecture recording or a page in a course document where the information originally came from. This functionality grants you the opportunity to dive deeper into the topics and learn directly from your instructor’s materials.
Getting Started
To get started, navigate to your course in your Learning Management System (LMS). Let’s use Canvas for this example. You will find the link to LearningClues on the sidebar. Clicking on it will take you to the StudyClues interface.
The Main Interface
Upon opening StudyClues, you’ll see the main chat window. Click on “Open in new tab” to view it outside of Canvas. This is where you can type in your questions.
How to Ask Questions
You can ask StudyClues anything about your course content. For example, if you are confused about a concept from a lecture, you can ask for a definition or an explanation.
Let’s try an example. I will ask: “How do I calculate relative humidity?”
Once you submit your question, StudyClues will search through all the course content to generate a response. The response will appear in the chat window, along with citations that link back to the source material.
Interacting with References
The citations in the response are interactive. You can click on them to see a snippet from the original source, like a textbook or lecture transcript. To see more, you can click on "View File," which will take you to the exact page in the document. This allows you to get more context and review the material in its original form.
Conversational Learning
StudyClues is completely conversational. This means you can ask follow-up questions to clarify a point or ask for more detail. For instance, if you’re still confused after the first answer, you could say:
“I’m still confused. Walk me through a detailed example step by step.”
StudyClues will understand the context of your previous question and provide a more detailed, step-by-step explanation, again with references.
Questions About Course Logistics
Because StudyClues has access to all course documents, including the syllabus, you can also ask about course logistics, like office hours, deadlines, or grading policies.
For example: “When are office hours? How do I sign up?”
StudyClues will provide the relevant information and cite the syllabus.
Providing Feedback
For every response, you can provide feedback. You can click the thumbs-up icon if the response was helpful or the thumbs-down icon if it was not. If you select "No," a text box will appear, allowing you to explain what you felt was wrong about the response. This feedback helps us improve the system.
Navigating Your Conversations
Conversation History
The sidebar on the left shows all your past conversations with StudyClues. You can click on any previous conversation to review it or continue where you left off. The context from that conversation will be preserved.
More Screen Space
If you need more room to view the chat, you can close the sidebar by clicking the icon at the top.
Starting a New Chat
If you want to start a fresh conversation on a new topic, click the "New chat" button in the upper-left corner. This will reset the interface.
Connecting to PracticeClues
You can easily switch to our quiz-taking application, PracticeClues, by clicking the "PracticeClues" button. PracticeClues allows you to test your knowledge with quizzes generated from your course content.
Getting Help
Contact Support: If you experience any technical issues or problems with the software, you can click "Contact Support" in the navigation bar. This will open an email addressed to our support team so you can describe your issue and get help.
