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Using the AI Design Assistant in Ultra Course View

Using the AI Design Assistant in Ultra Course View

Owned by Cyrus Diamond
Last updated: Jun 10, 2025 by Yoonjeong Yoo

This section is intended for instructors looking to get more information on the uses of AI in Ultra Course View. AI is a useful tool that can be found in a multitude of Ultra's course features. To view the step-by-step instructions on utilizing the variety of AI tools in Ultra select the drop-down menu under “How to utilize this tool:”

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Recommendations of Best Practices

AI can function to assist in Learning Modules. When you begin your course:

  1. Select Build Content or if you have already started building your course, select the plus sign followed by Auto-Generate Modules:

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  1. You have several ways to customize the learning modules that the AI Design Assistant generates.

  • Enter a description (limited to 2000 characters) to narrow the focus of the modules

  • Select a prefix for the module titles

  • Choose whether to include AI-generated images for the modules

  • Adjust the complexity of the modules’ focus. The complexity levels are as follows:

    1. Early primary school 

    2. Late primary school 

    3. Early middle school 

    4. Late middle school 

    5. Early high school 

    6. Late high school

    7. Undergraduate lower division

    8. Undergraduate upper division 

    9. Graduate level 

    10. Advanced PhD level

  • Select the number of modules to generate

  • Select Advanced options to change the output language 

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Additionally, by clicking Select Course Items allows you to select which course items you’d like the AI Design Assistant to provide context for new learning modules.

  • Select any course content item to include it in the context for your learning module. 

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  • You can select a folder or learning module to include items from them. When you finish choosing items for context, select Select items to return to module generation. 

File types supported by the context picker include PDF, Word, PowerPoint, text, RTF, and HTML.

  1. Once you’ve finalized your settings, select Generate. Choose the modules you’d like to add to your course, then select Add to Course.

When you start to build your course, AI can function to assist in Discussions. To use AI to generate discussions:

  1. Navigate to your Discussion Tab

  2. Select New Discussion

  3. Select Auto Generate Discussion

  4. You have several ways to customize the learning modules that the AI Design Assistant generates.

  • Enter a description (limited to 2000 characters) to narrow the focus of the discussions

  • Select the desired cognitive level

    • Apply

    • Analyze

    • Evaluate

    • Create

    • Inspire me! provides you with a mix of levels

  • Adjust the complexity of the discussions’ focus. The complexity levels are as follows:

    1. Early primary school 

    2. Late primary school 

    3. Early middle school 

    4. Late middle school 

    5. Early high school 

    6. Late high school

    7. Undergraduate lower division

    8. Undergraduate upper division 

    9. Graduate level 

    10. Advanced PhD level

  • Select whether or not you want to generate a title for discussions

  • Select Advanced options to change the output language 

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Additionally, by clicking Select Course Items allows you to select which course items you’d like the AI Design Assistant to provide context for new Discussions.

  • Select any course content item to include it in the context for your learning module. 

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  • You can select a folder or learning module to include items from them. When you finish choosing items for context, select Select items to return to module generation. 

File types supported by the context picker include PDF, Word, PowerPoint, text, RTF, and HTML.

  1. Once you’ve finalized your settings, select Generate. Choose the discussion you’d like to add to your course, then select Add to Course.

AI can function to assist in Journals. To use AI to generate journals:

  1. Navigate to your HuskyCT Ultra Course.

  2. Hover over the location where you want to create your Journal. Click the plus sign at the left of the line.

  3. On the dropdown that appears, click Create.

  4. Under Participation and Engagement, click Journal.

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You have several ways to customize the learning modules that the AI Design Assistant generates.

  • Enter a description (limited to 2000 characters) to narrow the focus of the journals

  • Select the desired cognitive level

    • Apply

    • Analyze

    • Evaluate

    • Create

    • Inspire me! provides you with a mix of levels

  • Adjust the complexity of the journals’ focus. The complexity levels are as follows:

    1. Early primary school 

    2. Late primary school 

    3. Early middle school 

    4. Late middle school 

    5. Early high school 

    6. Late high school

    7. Undergraduate lower division

    8. Undergraduate upper division 

    9. Graduate level 

    10. Advanced PhD level

  • Select whether or not you want to generate a title for journals

  • Select Advanced options to change the output language

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Additionally, by clicking Select Course Items allows you to select which course items you’d like the AI Design Assistant to provide context for journals.

  • Select any course content item to include it in the context for your journal. 

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  • You can select a folder or learning module to include items from them. When you finish choosing items for context, select Select items to return to module generation. 

File types supported by the context picker include PDF, Word, PowerPoint, text, RTF, and HTML.

  1. Once you’ve finalized your settings, select Generate. Choose the discussion you’d like to add to your course, then select Add to Course.

The AI Design Assistant creates rubrics by drawing insights from course context. To use AI to generate rubrics:

  1. Navigate to your Ultra course in HuskyCT.

  2. From the top menu, click the Gradebook tab.

  3. Click the gear icon located in the upper right hand corner to open the Gradebook settings.

  4. Under Gradebook Settings, scroll down to Course Rubrics.

  5. Click Generate

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You have several ways to customize the learning modules that the AI Design Assistant generates.

  • Enter a description (limited to 2000 characters) to narrow the focus of the rubric

  • Select the rubric type: percentage, percentage range, points, point range, or no points

  • Adjust the complexity of the rubric. The complexity levels are as follows:

    1. Early primary school 

    2. Late primary school 

    3. Early middle school 

    4. Late middle school 

    5. Early high school 

    6. Late high school

    7. Undergraduate lower division

    8. Undergraduate upper division 

    9. Graduate level 

    10. Advanced PhD level

  • Define the number of columns and rows

  • Select Advanced options to change the output language

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  1. Once you’ve finalized your settings, select Generate. If the rubric meets your needs, select Continue to edit the rubric

AI can function to assist in generating assignment prompts. To use AI to generate assignment prompts:

  1. From the main Course Content page click any plus sign to create an assignment in that location.

  2. From the dropdown, click Create.

     

  3. Then from the right-side menu, scroll down and click Assignment.

The AI Design Assistant generates three assignment prompts. You have several ways to refine the prompts that the AI Design Assistant generates. 

  • Enter a description (limited to 2000 characters) to narrow the focus of the prompts

  • Select the desired cognitive level

    • Apply

    • Analyze

    • Evaluate

    • Create

    • Inspire me! provides you with a mix of levels

  • Adjust the complexity of the prompts’ focus. The complexity levels are as follows:

    1. Early primary school 

    2. Late primary school 

    3. Early middle school 

    4. Late middle school 

    5. Early high school 

    6. Late high school

    7. Undergraduate lower division

    8. Undergraduate upper division 

    9. Graduate level 

    10. Advanced PhD level

  • Select whether or not you want to generate a title for the prompts

  • Select Advanced options to change the output language 

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Optionally, you can select which course items you’d like the AI Design Assistant to provide context for the assignment prompts. Select Select course items to start.

  • Select any course content item to include it in the context for your test. 

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  • You can select a folder or learning module to include items from them. When you finish choosing items for context, select Select items to return to module generation. 

File types supported by the context picker include PDF, Word, PowerPoint, text, RTF, and HTML.

  1. Once you’ve finalized your settings, select Generate. Review each prompt for accuracy and bias. Choose the prompt you’d like to add to your assignment, then select Add.

The AI Design Assistant is beneficial for both formative and summative assessments. Test questions are generated based on the course context that you select.

  1. After logging in to HuskyCT, navigate to your Ultra course and Create a new Test or click on an existing test.

  2. Hover over the dashed gray line.

  3. The line will turn purple, and a plus sign will appear at the center.

  4. Click the plus sign.

  5. Choose Auto-generate question from the dropdown menu

You have several ways to refine the test questions that the AI Design Assistant generates.

  • Enter an optional description (limited to 2000 characters) to narrow the focus of the questions

  • Adjust the complexity of the questions. The complexity levels are as follows:

    1. Early primary school 

    2. Late primary school 

    3. Early middle school 

    4. Late middle school 

    5. Early high school 

    6. Late high school

    7. Undergraduate lower division

    8. Undergraduate upper division 

    9. Graduate level 

    10. Advanced PhD level

  • Select the number of questions

  • Select Advanced options to change the output language 

You can select from the following question types: 

  • Essay

  • Fill in the blank

  • Matching

  • Multiple choice

  • True/False 

  • The "Inspire me!" question type suggests a variety of question types to give you more options. 

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Optionally, you can select which course items you’d like the AI Design Assistant to provide context for test questions. Select Select course items to start.

  • Select any course content item to include it in the context for your test. 

  • You can select a folder or learning module to include items from them. When you’ve finished choosing items for context, select Select items to return to question generation. 

  1. Once you’ve finalized all of your settings, select Generate. Choose the questions that you’d like to add to your assessment, then select Add to Assessment.

  1. From within your Ultra course, locate the Details and Actions menu.

  2. Scroll down to Question Banks and click Manage banks.

  3. Click on the plus icon to add a new Question Bank. Select New.

  1. From the Dropdown menu select Auto-Generate

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You have several ways to refine the questions that the AI Design Assistant generates.

  • Enter a description (limited to 2000 characters) to narrow the focus of the questions

  • Adjust the complexity of the questions. The complexity levels are as follows:

    1. Early primary school 

    2. Late primary school 

    3. Early middle school 

    4. Late middle school 

    5. Early high school 

    6. Late high school

    7. Undergraduate lower division

    8. Undergraduate upper division 

    9. Graduate level 

    10. Advanced PhD level

  • Select the number of questions

  • Select Advanced options to change the output language 

You can select from the following question types:

  • Essay

  • Fill in the blank

  • Matching

  • Multiple choice

  • True/False

  • The "Inspire me!" question type suggests a variety of question types to give you more options.

image-20250522-163741.png

Optionally, you can select which course items you’d like the AI Design Assistant to provide context for test questions. Select Select course items to start.

  • Select any course content item to include it in the context for your test. 

  • You can select a folder or learning module to include items from them. When you’ve finished choosing items for context, select Select items to return to question generation. 

  1. Once you’ve finalized your settings, select Generate. Choose the questions that you’d like to add to your Question Bank, then select Add to Question Bank.

AI assisted images can be found in any feature of Ultra that instructors can add images (Content, Learning Modules, Documents) any place with the image icon image-20250522-174550.png . If you want to input AI generated images in your course:

  1. Select the image-20250522-174646.png icon

  2. Change the image source to Generate images

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  1. With the AI Design Assistant, you can generate an image to insert into your text. Enter a description for your image and then select Generate. One image is generated at a time. When you choose to regenerate an image, the previous image is saved. After you select an image or exit image generation, all previous generated images are cleared.

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You can create AI Conversations around a topic or scenario to engage your students. AI Conversations include Socratic questioning and role-play exercises. To create an AI conversation:

  1. From the main Course Content page click any plus sign.

  2. From the dropdown, click Create.

     

  3. Then from the right-side menu, scroll down and click AI Conversation.

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  1. Select Auto-generate conversation

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You have several ways to customize the AI Conversations that the AI Design Assistant generates. 

  • Enter a description (limited to 2000 characters) to narrow the focus of the conversation

  • Select the conversation type

    • Socratic questioning

    • Role-play

    • Inspire me! provides conversations of both types

  • Select or deselect the creation of AI Conversation titles, AI personas, and reflection questions

  • Adjust the complexity of the AI Conversation. The complexity levels are as follows:

    1. Early primary school 

    2. Late primary school 

    3. Early middle school 

    4. Late middle school 

    5. Early high school 

    6. Late high school

    7. Undergraduate lower division

    8. Undergraduate upper division 

    9. Graduate level 

    10. Advanced PhD level

  • Select whether or not you want to generate a title

  • Select Advanced options to change the output language

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Optionally, you can select which course items you’d like the AI Design Assistant to provide context for AI Conversations. Select Select course items to start.

  • Select any course content item to include it in the context for your discussion. 

  • You can select a folder or learning module to include items from them. When you’ve finished choosing items for context, select Select items to return to question generation. 

  1. Once you’ve finalized your settings, select Generate. Review each AI Conversation for accuracy and bias. Choose the AI Conversation you’d like to add to your course, then select Add.

 

 

For more information or assistance with HuskyCT, please contact the Educational Technology Office at edtech@uconn.edu or (860) 486-5052 (M-F 9am-4pm).