Dear Colleagues,
As part of OSU’s work to advance Prosperity Widely Shared, particularly our commitment to student success and retention, we are introducing Beaverly, an SMS-based tool designed to help connect students to timely information and support. During AI Week, this launch represents one step in a broader effort to strengthen how we engage and support students across the university. We have partnered with EdSights for this program, and you can learn more through this video overview.
This effort complements our broader First Year Registration and Retention work by improving early, proactive outreach to students and helping ensure they connect with the right resources at the right time.
During spring term, Beaverly will periodically send check-ins to undergraduate students, which are timed to offer important resources at key parts of the term. Students can also reach out to Beaverly anytime to ask a question, and Beaverly can respond to inquiries on a broad range of campus topics specific to OSU. Beaverly continues to learn and has been trained to answer questions quickly or refer students to the humans who can help. Beaverly is not designed to walk students through complex processes — that is where the humans at OSU can assist.
Beaverly is designed to augment, not replace, the work of faculty, advisors, and staff. Conversations are reviewed by OSU teams to improve outreach and ensure students are connected to appropriate resources. In cases where students may need additional support, Beaverly helps route them to the offices best positioned to assist. You can find out more about Beaverly at: https://technology.oregonstate.edu/services/chat-beaverly
With the rise of generative AI, we know there might be some questions about inaccurate information. Beaverly draws information from a robust knowledge base curated by OSU professionals and is continually learning. Beaverly is not designed to generate answers at the cost of accuracy. The chatbot part of Beaverly’s intelligence helps to make Beaverly conversational and make better referrals based on real language patterns.
Beaverly will send an introductory text message to undergraduate students this month. If you receive any questions from students about the chatbot, feel free to forward the questions to [email protected] in University Advising & Educational Engagement.
Wishing you an excellent spring term,
Roy Haggerty
Provost and Executive Vice President