Task assistant

1 What the task assistant is and how to open it

The task assistant is a side panel of the Alaia AI that specialises in tasks. It knows Symma’s task types and where each task is saved. You describe what you need in plain language, and Alaia drafts proposals. Nothing is saved until you approve the proposals.

Opening it

1. Find the round turquoise button with a ticked-box icon in the bottom right corner of the app. When you hover over it, the text “Open task assistant” appears.
2. Click the button. The panel slides in from the right edge of the screen.
3. Close the panel with the ✕ (Close) button in its header, the Esc key or by clicking the round button again.

• The target bar (below the header) shows where the tasks will be saved – see section 2.
• Input field: Enter sends the message, Shift + Enter adds a line break.
• 📎 Attach material – attach text or a file as a basis for Alaia (section 7).
• 🗑 Clear conversation – starts this target’s conversation over (section 8).
• Panel width: drag the panel’s left edge to make it wider or narrower. Double-clicking the edge restores the default width. The app remembers the width you choose.

2 Target: where the tasks are saved

Every conversation has a target – the place where approved tasks are saved. The target is shown at the top of the panel as “Target: …”. The target also determines which task types you can use (section 6).

The target is detected automatically

• If an exam is open in the exam editor, that exam becomes the target.
• If a course is open in the course editor or on the course page, that course’s course tasks become the target.
• Otherwise the assistant uses the target you used last.
• If there is no target, the bar reads “Pick where the tasks will be saved”. You can still type a request, e.g. “5 tasks for the MAA6 course”: Alaia tries to recognise the target from your text and reports “Detected target: …”. If it is not sure, it asks or opens the target picker.

Changing the target

Click the Change button in the target bar. The picker “Where should the tasks go?” opens, with a search field and four groups:

• Courses – the course’s course tasks (tasks the student does on the course). The course’s section quizzes are also listed under it.
• Exams – proctored exams. An activated exam is greyed out with the note “active – locked” and cannot be selected.
• Quiz question bank – the question bank for course section quizzes, by category. + New category… creates a new category (a path, e.g. Algebra/Equations).
• Exam question bank – the folders of the exam question bank. + New folder… creates a new folder.

When an editor is open

If the target exam is open in the exam editor or the target course in the course editor, the target bar shows the addition “(editor open → added to the editor)”. Approved tasks are then added straight to the editor’s task list rather than saved separately – so the editor’s own save does not overwrite them.

3 Asking for new tasks

Write the request as you would to a colleague: topic, number, type, points and level. The more precise you are, the better the proposals match.

Example requests

1. Check that the target is correct (section 2).
2. If you like, choose a type with the “Type (optional)” buttons above the input field. Selected types are highlighted. If you do not choose a type, Alaia uses the type mentioned in the request or picks the most suitable one.
3. Type the request and press Enter. The panel shows “Alaia is writing tasks…”.
4. Alaia replies with a short message, and the Proposals list appears below it (section 4).

• If you do not give a number, Alaia makes 3 tasks. You can ask for at most 20 tasks in one message.
• Alaia drafts large requests in parts. If the answer is still cut off, Alaia says in its message that the answer hit the length limit and how many finished tasks it managed to keep. In that case, ask again for the missing ones.
• Alaia sees the tasks already in the target and the attached materials, so it aims for the same level and notation and does not repeat existing tasks.
• By default, course task points depend on the difficulty level: 1 = 4 pts, 2 = 6 pts, 3 = 8 pts (you can change them).

4 Checking and approving proposals

The tasks Alaia produces go into an approval list. Each row is one proposal: a checkbox, the type, the title and the points. New proposals are selected by default.

How to handle the proposals

1. Open the preview by clicking the row (▶). You see the task text, the options with the correct answers (✓), gaps, pairs or STACK details, and the Solution / model answer. Mathematics is shown typeset.
2. If a proposal has a Notes line, Alaia or the app has noticed something to check (e.g. a corrected format). Read it before approving.
3. Edit – correct the proposal by hand before saving (see below).
4. ↻ Redo – the input field is pre-filled with “Redo proposal #… : ”. Add what you want done differently and send. The new proposal replaces the old one, and the old one is marked Rejected.
5. Tick the proposals to save with the checkboxes (or use Select all / Clear selection).
6. Click Approve selected (n). The button briefly reads “Saving…”, and finally a message appears, e.g. “3 tasks saved”. Discard the ones you do not need with Reject selected.

Editing before saving

The Edit button opens a form whose fields depend on the task type:

• All types: Title, Task text, Solution / model answer and Points.
• Multiple choice: Options (tick = correct), a new option with + option, removal with ✕.
• Cloze: Gap answers (for a drop-down gap also the options in the form a | b | c).
• Matching: Pairs (left → right) and + pair.
• STACK: Variables (STACK) and Answer variables (comma separated).
• Video answer: Time limit (s) and Audio only.
• Course task: Difficulty (1–3). In an exam with Part B enabled: Part (A/B).

Save the form with Save changes or return to the preview with Cancel. The edited proposal stays open – it is only saved when you approve it.

Proposal statuses

Saved saved to the target Added to editor added to the open editor Deleted deletion done Rejected not saved Failed the reason is shown in the preview

5 Editing and deleting existing tasks

You can also use the task assistant to edit tasks already in the target: correct the text, add intermediate steps, change the points, move a task to Part B of an exam or delete a task.

See the target’s tasks: “Currently in target”

1. Click the Currently in target button in the target bar. A list of the target’s tasks opens, with their order numbers (1., 2., …), IDs (#57), types and points.
2. Click a task (“Click an item to edit it with Alaia”). The input field is pre-filled with “Edit item #57 (”…”): ”.
3. Add what should be changed and send.

Referring to tasks

• “item 3” means the third task in the order of the Currently in target list.
• “#57” means the task with ID 57.

If the reference is unclear, Alaia asks for clarification and makes no changes.

Edit and delete proposals

Changes go into the same approval list. An edit proposal is marked Edit #57, and the preview shows Current and Proposal side by side. A delete proposal is marked Delete #57 with the warning “This item will be removed from the target on approval.”

6 Task types by target (including STACK)

The target determines which task types you can use. The assistant makes sure a task is saved in the format that fits the target.

• Course tasks: the task prompt, a complete model solution, the difficulty level (1 = routine, 2 = basic, 3 = challenging) and points. Because the AI checks the student’s answer against your solution, the solution must be complete and unambiguous. On a learning path course, the task is placed in a group.
• Section quizzes and the quiz question bank are graded automatically, so Alaia favours automatically checked types unless you ask for open tasks.
• In exams points matter: Alaia gives the tasks sensible points, and open tasks get a model answer to support your grading. If the exam has a Part B, a task is placed in Part B only if you ask for it.

STACK tasks

A STACK task is a calculation task whose numbers are drawn separately for each student and whose answer is checked automatically. Ask, for example, for “two STACK tasks on solving an equation”. In the preview you see:

• the task computed with sample values (as the student would see it),
• the Variables (STACK) section – the randomisation definitions,
• the Computed answers (Sample values) line – the correct answers with these values, so you can check the calculation before approving.

7 Attaching material

You can give Alaia source material, for example a curriculum section, your own sample tasks or lesson notes. Alaia drafts the tasks to match the material’s content, level and notation.

1. Click the 📎 (Attach material) button next to the input field. If no target has been chosen yet, the target picker opens first.
2. Enter a Material name.
3. Paste the text into the “Paste text here…” field or choose a file with the 📁 File button. Supported files: txt, md, html, csv, json, pdf and docx (Word).
4. Click Attach. The material appears above the input field as a chip 📎 Material name ✕.

• Only the text is read from PDF and Word files. Images and scanned pages are not passed on.
• Materials belong to the target: they are used in all messages for the same target, and they are kept even after the conversation is cleared.
• Remove a material by clicking the ✕ on its chip.
• From very long materials, Alaia uses only part at a time. It is better to attach just the part related to the topic.

8 Conversation, limitations and tips

Each target has its own conversation

Every target has its own conversation. When you return to the same target later, the earlier messages, open proposals and materials are still there. Alaia also remembers the latest messages of the conversation, so you can continue briefly, e.g. “make two more, harder ones”.

🗑 Clear conversation asks for confirmation: “Clear this target’s conversation and open proposals? Approved tasks are kept.” Clearing removes the messages and unprocessed proposals, but tasks already saved and attached materials are kept.

Limitations

• An activated exam cannot be edited. If the target is an active exam, the assistant shows “active – locked”. Deactivate the exam first.
• At most 20 new tasks or changes per message.
• The assistant does not add images to tasks – add images in the editor after approval if needed.
• If the connection drops, you see “Connection error — try again.” Send the message again.

Tips

• Always check the mathematics. Alaia aims for correct solutions that include intermediate steps, but the teacher is responsible for the correctness of the tasks. Open the preview before approving.
• Give the level and context: the course, topic, difficulty level, points and whether you want everyday examples.
• Reject or redo rather than approve something unfinished – small corrections are quickest in the Edit form.
• Ask to “make more like these” when the target already has good model examples.
• When the target is open in the editor, save the exam or course after approving.