"AI tutor: students ask while they learn"

What it does

When it is on, the student's lesson page gets an Ask the tutor tab. A student types what they didn't understand, the answer appears as it is written, and sources are listed under it:

• ▶ This lesson 12:34: click it and the video jumps to that second.
• ▶ Another lesson + time: opens that lesson at that second (the video waits there; press play).
• 📖 Material: lesson name: the answer came from that lesson's written content.

The conversation is still there after a refresh. Questions asked in another lesson are labelled "Asked in 'lesson name'".

The tutor does not appear on quiz and assignment lessons, and the server refuses questions from there. When a quiz question pops up over a video, the input is paused until it is answered.

How the tutor finds an answer

The tutor looks in a fixed order and stops at the first layer that has something relevant:

1. This lesson's video subtitles: for a video with subtitles, it explains from what is said and links to the time.

2. This lesson's text: with no subtitles, it uses the lesson's written content and text blocks.

3. Other lessons of the course the student can open right now.

4. None of the above: the AI answers from its own knowledge, never says it came from the teacher, and shows no source.

The first point matters most: a video without subtitles can't be heard by the tutor. Customer service → AI tutor shows how many videos in each course have no subtitles; add them.

The tutor reads video subtitles, text lessons and text blocks. It does not read quizzes, assignments, downloads, live links, or lessons that contain a quiz block. Lessons the student can't open (not yet released, score not reached, not enrolled) are never used.

Under every question there is a fixed line, "AI answers can be wrong. Your teacher's material is the reference.", and a link to ask the teacher in Discussion.

Turn it on and set it up

Go to Customer service → AI tutor in the sidebar (owner only):

• One switch for the whole school; there is no per-course switch.
• Tutor name: leave blank for "AI tutor".
• Questions per student per day (default 30, counted over 24 hours).
• What the tutor can read: for each course, how many lessons it reads and how many videos have no subtitles.
• Update now: after you edit a lesson, the tutor catches up within about 10 minutes by itself; press this to apply it immediately.

See what students asked

Customer service → Tutor chats (the owner, and instructors with the Courses permission, who see only the courses they manage):

• All chats: filter by course, student name or email, text and date. Read-only; to reply to a student use the course discussion.
• Not covered in the material: answers where the tutor cited no lesson and answered on its own, with the student's question and the AI's answer. The lessons with the most such questions are listed on top: that is where the course can be strengthened.
• Students said it didn't help: under a tutor answer a student can press "Yes" or "No" (the rating is only recorded: nobody is notified, and the student can change their mind or take it back). This filter lists the answers marked "No", each with the student's question and the answer they saw, plus "Open the conversation" and "Go to the course"; above it is the last 30 days' "helped / didn't help" count (the answers' current ratings), and a small mark sits beside a rated answer in the conversation.
• Save as course FAQ draft: saves a question and answer as an unpublished course FAQ. You edit and publish it (FAQs are public, so they are always saved as drafts first).

Allowance

The tutor shares the monthly AI message allowance with the website chat (Basic 100, Growth 1,000, Pro 3,000). Each tutor answer counts as one. When it is used up, students see "The tutor can't answer right now. Ask the teacher in Discussion." and never a mention of an allowance. Customer service → Usage shows both, split between the website chat and the tutor.

Conversations and privacy

• A student's questions and the tutor's answers are stored and deleted automatically 12 months after the last message. They are deleted with the student's account and included when a student downloads their data.
• When a student asks for a conversation to be deleted under your privacy policy, the site owner can open it under Support → Tutor chats and press "Delete this conversation". It is deleted permanently with all its messages and cannot be restored (instructors do not see this button).
• The question, the recent messages and the pieces of material used to answer are sent to Google Gemini to produce the answer.
• Your website's privacy policy page gains the matching paragraph while the tutor is on.

Good to know

• The demo school doesn't offer the tutor.
• The tutor pauses while the subscription isn't active; your settings are kept.