How to Get the Best Help from the Chat Assistant

The chat assistant is here to help you get support faster when something is not working as expected. You can use it to explain what is happening with a lesson, assignment, account, app, or school tool, and it will try to guide you to the right next step.

The more clearly you explain the problem, the easier it is for the chat assistant (and our Support team, if they need to step in) to understand what is going on and help you move forward.

Getting Started

To begin, open the support chat and describe the issue in one complete message. 

The goal is simple: the better the first message, the faster we can understand the problem and help you get back to learning.

Try to write it the same way you would explain it to a teacher who wasn't in the room with you. For example, instead of writing:

Math does not work.

Try writing:

I am working on my Math lesson about fractions. I clicked Submit on question 4, but instead of sending my answer, the page was stuck until it showed an “Something went wrong” error. I tried refreshing the page, but the same thing happened again.

This helps the chat assistant understand the issue more quickly and gives the Support team better information if the case needs to be reviewed by a person.

Best Practices for Getting Help Quickly

A few hints to help you get a good first message, like the example above:

• Send one complete message: Try not to send the issue in many short messages like “Hi,” then “I need help,” then “My lesson is broken.” A single complete message helps the chat assistant understand the full situation.
• Explain what you were trying to do: Tell us what lesson, subject, app, assignment, or page you were using. For example: “I was working on my Reading lesson in TimeBack” or “I was trying to open my Science assignment.”
• Describe what happened: Include the exact problem you saw. Did the page freeze? Did an answer not save? Did you see an error message? Did the lesson not open? Did progress not update?
• Include the exact error message: If you see an error message, copy it exactly if you can. If copying is not possible, a screenshot is also helpful.
• Tell us what should have happened: This helps us compare the expected result with what actually happened. For example: “I expected the lesson to move to the next question, but it stayed on the same page.”
• List the steps you already tried: If you refreshed the page, signed out and back in, changed browsers, restarted your device, or tried again later, include that. This helps us avoid asking you to repeat steps you already completed.
• Add helpful details when they apply: Useful details may include the student’s name if a parent or guardian is writing, the subject, the lesson or assignment name, the question number or activity name, the device being used, the browser or app being used, a screenshot of the issue, and the time the issue happened.

Please do not share passwords or private login codes in the chat.

When You Need More Help

If the chat assistant cannot solve the issue, the Support team can review the information you provided. If a person needs to step in, your original message gives them the context they need: what you were doing, what went wrong, what you expected to happen, and what you already tried. 

However, chatter with the bot might be included and cause confusion, so a new and clear description helps us understand the issue faster and reduces the need for extra follow-up questions.