FAQ’s for the Opterna – An AI Powered Study Companion
Question: Will the tool use faculty remixed textbooks as a source or just the “stock” BCcampus version?
Answer: Only the BCcampus version of the textbooks will be used in this tool. No remixes will be included in the tool’s database at this point in time.
Question: What is the tool being trained on and how?
Answer: We are using an existing, pre-trained LLM so the tool is not being “trained” per se. However, the 25 textbooks we are choosing to include are being added to a database so that the tool can access the necessary information when a student wants to chat about a certain topic or textbook.
Question: How is student data used in this tool?
Answers:
- The users’ data is anonymized by simply assigning a random ID number to each user in order for the tool to remember things such as their chat history. Therefore, no student data is being compromised.
- Chat history is only used to reference for future discussions with that specific user (using the ID number) and is not being used to train the tool.
- A user will be able to delete their chat history by simply deleting their chat.
Question: Is the prototype being maintained and how?
Answer: This is still up for discussion. After the prototype is finished, we will be working with our Development Team on the feasibility of hosting and maintaining the tool.
Question: When will prototype be a functioning tool?
Answer: A date has not yet been confirmed but we are expecting it to be around January 2026.
Question: Will it always just be the 25 textbooks or will it expand?
Answer: If we choose to host and maintain the tool, we will want to expand the number of textbooks. We chose our top 25 most used textbooks to start with for the prototype.
