Bear: The Classroom Bot

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  Group is notified as soon as any information is added or updated with "Add to Personal Calendar" buttons

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  Reminder before the day of a deadline

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  Complex Latex equation can be used to conduct a quiz/poll and will be rendered as GIF image

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  A poll can be saved as a file to reuse later

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  Just attach the .docx poll file with "add poll" command to create poll from file

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  Offensive language is blocked in anonymous posts

Inspiration

It’s an exciting time for innovations in ed tech, and chatbots are at the forefront. Chatbots allow for the automation of repetitive and time-consuming communication while freeing up more time for meaningful discussions and interactions between professors and students. Should professors be wasting time answering questions such as “When is the paper due?” or replying to emails such as “When are your office hours?”. Instead they could be engaged in something more productive such as analysis of the material they reviewed in class. Chatbots can also help them conduct realtime poll in the classroom.

Apart from these, the idea of personal attention for each and every student (something we plan to work on in near future) is another main motivation for this project. Check out this video for more inspiration:

What it does

Set up is as easy as adding Bear Bot to a group conversation. It assumes the creator of the conversation is the Professor and rest of the participants are students (can be changed with make admin command).
Here are the main features of Bear:

Available Commands:

: Available for Professor
: Avaialble for Student

Office Hours

• set/delete office hours: To set or delete office hour info
  
• office hours: To get office hour info
  

Course Website

• set/delete website: To set or delete course website info
  
• website: To get course website info
  

Syllabus

• set/delete syllabus: To set or delete a link of syllabus
  
• syllabus: To get the link of syllabus
  

Course Resources

• set/delete resources: To set or delete a link of course resources
  
• resources: To get the link of course resources
  

Due

• add/update/delete due: For dues (homework, assignments, reports) with title, description and date
  
• due: To get the list of upcoming dues
  

Exam

• add/update/delete exam: For exams (quiz, midterm, finals) announcement with title, description and date
  
• exam: To get the list of upcoming exams
  

Events

• add/update/delete event: For events with title, description and date
  
• event: To get the list of upcoming event
  

News

• add/update/delete news: For important announcements and notifications
  
• news: To get the latest news
  

Poll

• set/delete poll: For in-class questions or polls
  
• set poll with .docx file attached: Create poll from file
  
• set poll with tex: Create poll with Latex equations
  
• poll: To view the active poll
  
• result: To get result of an active poll
  
• poll: To participate in a poll
  

Anonymous Group Post

• post: To anonymously post a question/issue/concern

Settings

• set timezone: To set timezone, all queries and reminders will fire according to this
  
• timezone: To get the currently set timezone
  
• make admin: To give someone admin privilege (using email)
  
• remove admin: To remove admin privilege (using email)
  
• admin: To see the status of admin privilege of yourself
  

Source Code

To have your own Bear:

1. Clone this repository:
   git clone https://github.com/mehamasum/bear-bot
cd bear-bot

2. Install dependencies:
   npm install

3. Write a .env file with the following:

   access_token=YOUR_CISCO_SPARK_ACCESS_TOKEN  
   public_address=YOUR_PUBLIC_ADDRESS_WITH_HTTPS  
   secret=YOUR_SECRET_STRING  
   PORT=YOUR_PORT_NUMBER  
   

4. Launch your bot application by typing: node .

To extend:

This bot is written in Node.js and built with bot-kit for Cisco Spark

All the actions this bot can perform are in skills/ folder. The main bot application will automatically include any files placed there.

A skill module should be in the format:

module.exports = function(controller) {
    // add event handlers to controller
}

What's next for Bear

• Natural Language Processing
• Relative time processing in event based input, for example:
  • today at 4pm
  • tomorrow morning
  • next monday at 11:59am

Built With

• botkit
• express.js
• love
• mammoth
• node.js
• officegen
• request