Use the general chat on Ask Alma

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What you need to know

Ask Alma provides all professors and members of staff with a general chatbot for personalised support.
You can use the chatbot, for example, to:
- ask questions about course content;
- request explanations, examples or summaries;
- develop ideas for syllabus planning, exam design or teaching materials.

The chatbot function can be accessed directly via the “Ask Alma” course in FELIX: https://felix.hs-furtwangen.de/url/RepositoryEntry/89129333
Members of staff and professors can also establish a direct email login (see step 7).

What you have to do

  1. Open your personal “Ask Alma” section: Open the FELIX course “Ask Alma”.
    There, under “Ask Alma”, you will find the “zum Chatbot” (Go to chatbot) section. Click on “LTI-Lerninhalt anzeigen" (Start LTI learning module) there: 
    External link opens in a new window:https://felix.hs-furtwangen.de/url/RepositoryEntry/89129333

    • Your personal Ask Alma area is opening.

  2. Chance Language Settings: Change the Ask Alma interface to English by clicking “Einstellung & Hilfe” (Settings & Help)  at the bottom, then going to the tab “Allgemeines” (General) and changing the “Sprache” (Language) to ‘English’ under “Darstellung” (Appearance).

  3. Start a general chat: Click on ‘New general chat’ at the top of the menu on the left, or select existing general chats from the menu bar at the bottom left.

    • The chat area opens in the centre of the screen. Type your question or task into the ‘+Send a message’ text box.

    • When using AI (Ask Alma), please note the following general guidelines: 

      • Do not enter any personal data (e.g. students’ names, matriculation numbers or sensitive examination data)
      • Do not generate or request any illegal, harmful or abusive content (e.g. instructions on how to circumvent security systems, incitement to commit criminal acts, or content promoting violence or hate) 
      • Do not infringe the rights of third parties (e.g. do not upload or allow the processing of copyright-protected texts, confidential documents or unauthorised images)

      Please note that, like any AI, Ask Alma may make mistakes or provide incomplete or inaccurate information. It is therefore your responsibility to check the generated content and perform a critical assessment of it. 

  4. Past conversations: You can find past conversations with Ask Alma in your personal area, under ‘History’ in the menu on the left. Your conversations are stored there for 30 days. If you pin a conversation, you’re marking it as particularly important: it will remain visible at the top of your chat list and will be stored permanently.

  5. Exporting chat histories: You can export individual chats as PDF files using the export icon in the top right-hand corner, so you can save them outside of Ask Alma or share them with others.

  6. Credit: Each person has a monthly allowance for using Ask Alma. You can find information on your current credit balance in ‘Settings & help’ (in the menu at the bottom left), under ‘Settings’ and then in the ‘Credit’ tab at the top right. Once your allowance has been used up, the Lite version will automatically be activated until the end of the month. You will still be able to use Ask Alma, but with restrictions (only Lite language models are available; web search, image generation and the tool for calculations and table analysis are not available; when uploading files, only documents, text, code and images are permitted; no spreadsheets or archives). At the start of the following month, your full quota will be available again. Even if your university has used up its monthly quota in its entirety, the Lite version may be activated for all users.

  7. Establish email login: Under ‘Settings & help’ (in the menu at the bottom left), click on ‘Settings’ and then follow the instructions at the top right of the ‘Email sign-in’ tab. Once the establishment has been completed successfully, you can log in directly via email login on the page External link opens in a new window:https://app.ask-alma.de/.

Problems or questions?