What this makes. A question-and-answer assistant for your students, built out of your own syllabus. They type things like “can I turn it in late?” or “I missed class, what do I do?” and it gives them what you wrote.
It does not use AI and it never invents an answer. It only repeats what you type below. Anything you leave blank, it tells the student to email you about. That is deliberate - it cannot make up a policy you do not have.
Everything stays on your computer. This page sends nothing anywhere. There is no account, no key and no bill.
Fastest way to start
Paste your existing syllabus into the box below and you already have a working chatbot - students can search the whole thing in plain English. Then fill in as many of the sections underneath as you like. Each one you fill in turns into a cleaner, more direct answer than a search result.
Copy it out of Word or a PDF and paste it in. Formatting does not matter. Leave it blank if you would rather only use the fields below.
Try it before you download
This is exactly what your students will see. Ask it something.
Download
For Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle or D2L
A SCORM 1.2 package. This is the one most people want.
Or as a single web page
One HTML file that works on its own - email it, put it on a course website, or open it straight from your desktop. No learning management system needed.
Save your answers so you can edit later
This downloads what you typed as a small file. Next semester, load it back in, change the dates and build a fresh package in two minutes. Keep it somewhere you will find it.
Your answers are also kept in this browser automatically, so closing the tab by accident will not lose them.
How to put it in Blackboard
- Download the SCORM package above. Do not unzip it - Blackboard wants the .zip exactly as it is.
- In your Blackboard course, go to the content area where you want it - Start Here, or Course Information, or wherever students will look.
- Choose Build Content, then Content Package (SCORM).
- Browse to the .zip file and upload it.
- On the settings screen, give it a name students will recognise - Ask the Syllabus works well - and make it available.
- Grading is optional. If you turn it on, a student counts as complete once they have asked three questions. Most people leave grading off and just let it sit there as a help tool.
- Open it yourself as a student would, and ask it one question to be sure it came through.
When your syllabus changes, come back here, load your saved answers, edit, download a new .zip, and upload it over the old one in Blackboard. The old package does not update itself.
Canvas: Settings, then Import Course Content, then SCORM package. Moodle: Add an activity, then SCORM package. D2L: Content, then Upload, then SCORM.
Questions other professors ask
Will it make something up?
No. It is a lookup tool, not a generative one. Every answer is either text you typed or a passage out of the syllabus you pasted. Where you left a section blank, it says so and sends the student to you.
Does it cost anything, or need an account?
No. It is a few files that run inside the student's browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, there is no service behind it, and nothing can run up a bill.
Can it see my students or their grades?
No. It has no access to anything except what you typed. It does not know who is asking, it does not keep what they ask, and nothing a student types leaves their own browser.
Is it accessible?
Yes - it is built to WCAG 2.1 AA. It works by keyboard alone, answers are announced to screen readers as they arrive, and it holds up at 200% zoom and on a phone.
What if a student asks it something upsetting?
If someone types something that sounds like a crisis, it stops answering syllabus questions and gives them the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, plus whatever campus counseling you put in the Support section. Fill that section in.
Will it do their homework?
It refuses, and points them at your AI policy and at tutoring instead.
Can I share this setup page with a colleague?
Yes, please do. Send them this one HTML file. It is self-contained - their course, their answers, their package.
Made for Middlesex Community College faculty. Share it freely. The chatbot you build is yours.