Instant Student Support

AI assistant providing immediate answers to student questions within the learning interface, improving course completion by 10%.

01 — Problem

Unanswered Questions Blocking Progress

90% of student questions in class discussion sections went unanswered, creating barriers to understanding and causing course abandonment.

No Immediate Help

Students stuck on concepts had nowhere to get quick answers, leading to frustration and disengagement when they couldn't progress through lessons.

Community Couldn't Scale

The discussion section relied on peer-to-peer help, but with 90% of questions unanswered, it wasn't providing the support students needed to succeed.

Abandonment at Confusion Points

When students hit roadblocks without support, they simply left. Unanswered questions directly correlated with lower completion rates.

02 — Solution Evolution

From Community Bot to Instant Assistant

We built two versions, learning from each to find the right balance between community engagement and immediate student support.

V1: Community Integration

AI agent answered questions directly in the discussion section after 30 minutes of no community response, maintaining the social learning dynamic while providing backup support.

V2: Dedicated Interface

Created a separate, always-visible option within the learning interface providing instant AI responses. Students could optionally share answers as discussion posts if satisfied.

03 — How It Works

Context-Aware Question Answering

Platzi Bot V1

Students posted questions in the class discussion section as usual. If no community member responded within 30 minutes, the AI agent automatically replied with a contextual answer based on the lesson content.

This preserved the community-first approach but provided a safety net for unanswered questions.

Discussion Section Integration

Explainer V2

A dedicated "Ask a Question" feature became permanently visible in the learning interface. Students could ask anything about the current lesson and receive instant AI-generated responses.

Dedicated Question Interface

Contextual Answer Generation

Both versions use the same underlying prompt system: student question + lesson content + course context. A fast model ensure responses appear within seconds.

In V2, after receiving an AI answer, students can choose to post it to the discussion section with their name, preserving community knowledge building while making immediate help the priority.

AI Answer Engine
04 — Impact

Measurable Improvement in Completion

Version 2's instant support approach drove significant gains in course completion and feature adoption.

+10%
Increase in course completion rate
25K+
Students using the feature
200K+
Questions answered by AI
05 — Key Learnings

What I Learned Building This

Solve the Real Problem First

V1 tried to preserve an idealized community dynamic that didn't match actual behavior. V2 focused on what students actually needed, immediate help when stuck.

Speed Matters More Than Perfection

Instant answers kept students moving forward. Waiting for perfect community responses that never came was worse than fast AI assistance.

Design for Actual Usage Patterns

Students weren't using discussions for questions, so integrating there limited reach. Putting help directly in the learning interface met them where they already were.