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Course Chat

The Course Chat is your general-purpose assistant for an entire course. Whether you have a question about a lecture concept, need a topic explained differently, or want to explore related ideas, this is the place to start.

How to Access It​

Open the course sidebar in Artemis and click on the Course Chat entry. The chat opens as a panel where you can start typing questions right away.

Course chat conversation with citation markers

What Iris Knows​

In Course Chat, Iris has access to:

  • Lecture slides and transcripts — all lectures that have been uploaded to the course
  • Course FAQs — frequently asked questions curated by your instructors
  • General course topics — concepts covered in the course syllabus and materials

This means you can ask about anything covered in the course without having to specify which lecture or exercise you mean — Iris searches across all available materials.

Citations​

When Iris draws on specific course content, you will see small numbered citation markers in the response (for example, [1], [2]). Hover over a citation to see which lecture slide, video segment, or FAQ entry it came from. For more details on how citations work, see How Iris Helps You Learn.

Example Use Cases​

  • "What is the difference between supervised and unsupervised learning?" — Iris explains the concept using your course's lecture content.
  • "Can you summarize the key points from the lecture on recursion?" — Iris retrieves relevant slides and provides a summary.
  • "I don't understand the observer pattern. Can you explain it with a simple example?" — Iris explains the concept and may cite the specific lecture that covered it.
  • "What topics were covered in last week's lecture?" — Iris can search across all available lecture materials to find the answer.
tip

Course Chat is best for conceptual questions about the course material. If you need help with a specific exercise you are working on, use the Exercise Chat instead — it can see your code and build results.

Chat History​

Course Chat keeps a history of your past conversations, organized by date in the sidebar. You can:

  • Resume a previous conversation by clicking on it in the sidebar.
  • Start a fresh conversation by clicking the pen icon at the top of the chat.

Starting a new chat is useful when you want to change topics, since Iris uses the conversation history to understand context.

Next Steps​