Getting Started with Maizey Canvas Connector

Environment

U-M Maizey

Issue

How to set up a Maizey project in your Canvas course.

Resolution

Canvas courses come pre-provisioned with the U-M GPT Maizey tool, which can be used to automatically create a Maizey project using your course as a data source. The result is a Maizey chat tool that can access your Canvas course content and respond to students’ queries. 

The course assistant you create is trained on the Canvas course content you make available to students, including Announcements, Assignments, Files, Lecture Recordings, Modules, and Pages. Any content that is hidden or locked will not be indexed until it becomes visible to students. Learn more about supported file types in U-M Maizey.

Academic courses in Canvas are pre-provisioned with a $1000 allocation per Canvas course, per semester, which is designed to cover most usage scenarios. The process of adding a Maizey project to a non-academic course in Canvas is the same, however you will need to add a shortcode to cover the Maizey project costs.

Note: Maizey workshops and workshop recordings are available.

Before you begin

It is recommended that you do the following prior to enabling the U-M GPT Maizey tool in your course:

• Set up your Canvas course content as you want it to be on the first day of class.
  • If you add new content after enabling the tool, you will need to either manually reindex the data or wait for the weekly scheduled automatic indexing to occur in order for your Maizey chat tool to index the course data. More information about indexing is provided below.
• Publish your Canvas course.
  • If you create the Maizey chat tool in Canvas prior to publishing the course, Maizey will not be able to index your course data and will not function properly.
     

Enable the U-M GPT Maizey tool in your course navigation

1. After opening your Canvas course, click Settings in the course navigation menu.
2. Click the Navigation tab.
3. Locate the U-M GPT Maizey tool, click the three dots, and click Enable. If desired, click and drag the tool to a different location in the navigation menu.
4. Click Save.

The U-M GPT Maizey tool now displays in your course navigation. 

Create your course Maizey project

5. Click U-M GPT Maizey in your course navigation.

If prompted, authorize access to your Canvas data. A Maizey project is automatically created, the Project Details page opens in a new browser tab, and it automatically begins indexing your Canvas course data (indexing progress can be viewed in the Task Activity list). 

6. Click Update next to the Published setting and publish the Maizey tool.

Note that the Public URL for your Maizey chat tool is located at the top of the Project Details page. This is the direct URL for your course chat tool and can be used by anyone who has access to the chat tool.

Edit Scheduled Maizey Reindexing (optional)

By default, Maizey schedules automatic reindexing of your course data weekly. If you wish to change the indexing schedule, you can follow the instructions to edit scheduled reindexing of your course data. 

You may also delete the scheduled reindex however, this is not recommended as you will then need to manually reindex your Maizey project whenever you make updates to your Canvas course in order to incorporate these changes into your course chat tool’s dataset.

Accessing your Course Maizey project / chat tool

Individuals with the Canvas Teacher role can access the course Maizey project by clicking U-M GPT Maizey in the course navigation menu. You can find instructions for customizing your Maizey project settings on the ITS website.

Individuals with the Canvas Student role can access the course Maizey chat tool by clicking U-M GPT Maizey in the course navigation menu.

Testing your Maizey chat tool

You are strongly encouraged to thoroughly test your chat tool before making it available to students. Use the Public URL (listed at the top of the Project Details page in Maizey) to access your course chat tool and enter test prompts to ensure the chat tool is responding as desired.

Additional Information

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.