OPIE: AI guide to student placement success
When the Office for Professional Learning (OPL) team faced a common challenge - students struggling to find information on their placement portal - they turned to AI for a solution. The result was OPIE, a specialised AI assistant designed to help Teacher Education Students navigate the PREXUS MyLearn site more effectively.
From information overload to guided navigation
The project began with an ambitious goal: create an AI assistant that could answer a wide range of common questions about placements using the PREXUS MyLearn site and related documentation. However, Program Engagement Officer Daniel Coffey and his colleague, Placement and Data Management Officer Nicholas Allingham, soon discovered a fundamental challenge.
"We quickly learnt that feeding OPIE too much information, such as our PREX Handbook, led to OPIE often giving confusing answers and contradicting itself," explains Daniel.
Rather than abandoning the project, the team pivoted their approach. "It became clear that while students found the PREXUS MyLearn had all the necessary information, they also found it overwhelming given the sheer volume of information, and so it was hard to navigate for their specific needs," Daniel notes.
A strategic shift to user-centred design
This insight led to a critical shift in OPIE's purpose - transforming it from a comprehensive question-answering tool to a specialised navigation assistant. The team created a streamlined 'PREXUS Breakdown' document that outlined the site structure, providing OPIE with enough context to direct students to relevant information, rather than attempting to replicate all content.
The assistant's prompt evolved through continuous testing, refining its personality and adding guidelines based on real student conversations. This iterative approach ensured OPIE would respond effectively to the types of questions students were actually asking.
Making an impact
Launched in April on the PREXUS MyLearn front page, OPIE has already engaged with 607 unique users across 1,573 conversations. The team later expanded access by adding OPIE to the InPlace site (where students upload placement documents) and creating pop-up windows throughout the PREXUS site for quick access.
With its friendly alien persona (complete with custom logo designed by former Team Leader Tara Kitchener), OPIE now serves as a first point of contact for students navigating placement requirements, enabling the OPL team to dedicate their expertise to more complex cases that require human judgment and nuanced support.
"The main goal was to help reduce phone calls/emails from students who primarily needed guidance to the right information on our PREXUS MyLearn site," Daniel explains. "We felt this approach would benefit the students by providing faster responses and allowing us to focus on the more complex cases that we often handle."
OPIE demonstrates how AI can effectively complement existing resources when designed with clear user needs in mind - not by attempting to replace comprehensive documentation, but by making it more accessible through intelligent navigation assistance.