The Course Chatbot

Applied Optimization with Julia

Dr. Tobias Vlćek

University of Hamburg

Before We Start

Say this before anyone scans (fixed wording):

“Before we start, I would like to ask you for five to eight minutes for a short survey. It is part of my Master’s thesis on AI chatbots in teaching. Participation is voluntary and without names: whether you take part has no effect on your grade, and I make no attempt to find out who participates or who answers what. Honest answers help me most, and that explicitly includes critical ones.”

Then, in your own words:

• There are no right or wrong answers. “Never” and “don’t know yet” are perfectly fine.
• You don’t need to memorise the code, you build it again by the same rule at the end of the semester. Use first names as in the passport, and the first one if there are several.
• No connection or not finished: the link stays open for one week. Please fill it in only once.

Next slide: the code stays up for eight minutes.

Start-of-Course Survey

5–8 minutes, voluntary and without names

tally.so/r/KY75N8?kurs=ao

The Course Chatbot

What Is It?

• An AI chatbot that knows the materials of this course
• You find it on every page of the course website
• Open it with the red button at the bottom right

How Does It Answer?

• It gives hints rather than complete solutions
• So that you work out the next step yourself

• Below each answer you see the passages from the course materials it is based on

Let’s ask it

a question!

Live demo, two minutes: open the course website, click the red button and type:

“I am stuck on the solar panel transport problem from lecture 1: how many truckloads should go from Dresden to Hamburg?”

Point out the hint and the sources below it. No network: the next slide shows the same conversation.

A Question on Lecture 1

Question: How many truckloads should go from Dresden to Hamburg?

• The answer is a hint: a question back, not the number
• Below it are the sources: here lecture 1 and a tutorial

What Happens to Your Chats?

• Conversations are stored without names
• They are analysed to improve teaching and for scientific research

• Please do not enter personal data!

The details are on the privacy page.

Do You Have to Use It?

• No: using the course chatbot is voluntary
• Studying: You may use external AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Mistral, Gemini)
• Bonus assignments: Every submission that used AI says so, in one honest line
• Exam: AI tools are not permitted

The full AI policy is on the welcome page.

A Complement, Not a Replacement

The course chatbot complements the lectures and the tutorials.

It does not replace them!

Bring your questions to the lectures and the tutorials, just as before!

Any questions?

If asked:

• Platform: oshu.eu, developed by me. Language model: Mistral Large 4.
• No login, no names. Strictly necessary cookies let you continue a conversation for about 24 hours.
• The survey and the chatbot conversations cannot be linked to each other.
• Whether you use the chatbot or take part in the survey has no effect on your grade. There are no bonus points for either.

Research diary: date, start of the survey, start of the introduction, duration, number present, number enrolled, which of the eight points were left out.