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FAQ Ingestion

FAQ ingestion lets you feed your course's frequently asked questions into Iris's knowledge base, so it can reference them when helping students.

What FAQ Ingestion Does​

When you ingest course FAQs, Iris indexes the questions and answers you have curated. This means:

  • Students get answers consistent with your official responses rather than generic AI-generated explanations
  • Common questions are handled accurately without requiring tutor intervention
  • Iris can cite your FAQs when they are relevant to a student's question

Setting Up FAQs​

FAQs are managed through Artemis's built-in FAQ system for your course. To make them available to Iris:

  1. Create or update your course FAQs in Artemis — navigate to the FAQ management section in your course and add questions with their answers
  2. Ingest the FAQs into Iris — use the ingestion button on the FAQ management page to send your FAQ content to Iris's knowledge base (similar to lecture ingestion)
  3. Verify ingestion — after ingestion, test by asking Iris a question that one of your FAQs covers to confirm it references the correct answer

What Makes a Good FAQ​

Effective FAQs for Iris should:

  • Cover genuinely common questions — focus on questions students actually ask, not hypothetical ones
  • Provide clear, complete answers — Iris will reference these directly, so they should be self-contained
  • Use consistent terminology — match the language you use in lectures and exercises
  • Address both conceptual and practical questions — "What is polymorphism?" as well as "How do I submit my exercise?"
tip

Review your course discussion forum for recurring questions. These are ideal candidates for FAQs that Iris can then handle automatically.

Keeping FAQs Up to Date​

As your course evolves, your FAQs should too:

  • Add new FAQs as new common questions emerge during the semester
  • Update existing answers when course policies or content change
  • Re-ingest after changes so Iris uses the latest version of your FAQs
warning

If you update FAQs in Artemis but do not re-ingest them, Iris will continue using the old versions. Always re-ingest after making changes.

How Iris Uses FAQs​

When a student asks a question in the Course Chat or other Iris features, Iris searches its knowledge base — which includes ingested FAQs — for relevant information. If a FAQ matches the student's question, Iris incorporates that answer into its response, potentially combining it with other sources like lecture content.

FAQs are particularly useful for:

  • Course logistics — submission deadlines, tool setup, grading policies
  • Common misconceptions — recurring conceptual errors that benefit from a consistent explanation
  • Exercise-specific clarifications — common questions about specific assignments

Next Steps​