Maizey Canvas Connector

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Before You Start (external page)
• Add Maizey to Course Menu
• Maizey Project Settings
• Indexing Course Data

Overview

The U-M Maizey Canvas Connector is a tool that integrates the university's in-house AI platform with Canvas. This integration offers students a 24/7 intelligent assistant within their courses, able to answer course-specific questions, clarify concepts, and provide information about upcoming assignments and deadlines. The U-M Maizey Canvas Connector enhances student engagement and simplifies the learning experience.

Maizey works by creating an index of your course content including:

• Announcements
• Assignments
• Files
• Modules
• Pages

By default, Maizey will only index course data to which students have access.

Before You Start

Before moving to the next steps, it is highly recommended that you review our Canvas Maizey GPT Checklist.

Add Maizey to Course Menu

The Maizey tool is available in all courses by default, however it needs to be added to the course menu if you wish to use it.

1. Go to your course in Canvas.
2. Click on Settings at the bottom of your course menu on the left.
3. On the next screen, select Navigation at the top.
   
4. Scroll down to the bottom list of items and find Maizey GPT.
5. Click the 3 dots next to Maizey GPT and choose Enable. It will move to the top section. Drag it to where you would like it to appear in your course menu.
   
6. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Set Up Maizey Project

Once you have added Maizey GPT to your course menu, you can proceed with managing the Maizey project.

Create Project

1. Click the Maizey GPT link in your course menu.
   
2. A page will come up asking you to authorize the Maizey tool on your account. Click Authorize.
   
3. Your project is now created and you will be on your Maizey Project Details page.

Manage Project Settings

The project details page has a number of options. The only one that needs to be changed is the Published status in order for students to be able to access the tool. Other than that, the tool will work as is.

1. First, find the Published status under Layout Settings. By default, your project will be unpublished.
   
2. Click the Update link to the right and toggle the setting to Published.
   
3. Click the Save button.

You can modify other aspects of the project, such as the title and the description. Click the Update button next to them to make changes.

• Project Title: The title is what is displayed on the Maizey tool page when your students access it. It defaults to the name of the course which is recommended.
• Project Description: The description shows beneath the title and should be a short blurb about the tool's purpose and uses. E.g. "A helpful AI assistant designed to facilitate learning, explain course concepts, and answer questions about the course."

At this point, You do not need to make any other changes. Your students can use the link in your course navigation to start chatting with your Maizey GPT.

Manage Artificial Intelligence Settings

The Artificial Intelligence Settings allow you to modify the generative AI aspect of how the Maizey tool functions. The default options will work in most cases. It is strongly recommended that you do not modify these settings unless you are familiar with the options. If you would like assistance with these settings, please contact the Office of Online and Digital Education.

• Temperature controls the randomness of the generative AI responses. A lower temperature results in more repetitive and deterministic responses.
• Chunks control how much data Maizey processes at once. The default of 4 generally works well. Smaller chunks make responses more focused but may miss related items. Larger chunks offer broader context, useful for summarization, but might distract the AI with unrelated content.
• The System Prompt is the set of intstructions that guides Maizey in how to respond to questions. IMPORTANT: if you opt to modify your system prompt, do not remove the existing prompt. Add your modifications above the existing prompt. Removing or changing the default prompt will prevent the tool from working.
• Chain and Chain Type should not be modified at this time.

Indexing Course Data

When you first access Maizey GPT in your course, it automatically indexes available course data. However, it only indexes content accessible to students at that time. If you use date restrictions, you will need to re-index whenever new content becomes available, or Maizey will not recognize it. For regularly scheduled content releases (e.g., weekly on Mondays), you can set up automatic re-indexing. Here are the steps:

1. On your Maizey project details page, click Project Data Sources in the top right.
   
2. On the next screen, click the Details button.
   
3. Select Edit in the top right.
   
4. If not already selected, click on Weekly.
5. Select the day of the week on which you would like the re-indexing to occur.
   
6. Click Submit.

Your Maizey GPT project will automatically re-index each week on the day selected.