Nexus for teachers

[ CLASS RULES ]

Set the rules for each class

Each class has a learning mode that students cannot change:

• Hints: a question or a nudge toward the next step, not the final answer.
• Guided: one step at a time, with the student doing each step.
• Full answer with critique: a complete answer with a critique, best for checking finished work after an attempt.

Add your own instructions on top, such as "Ask for the student's next step before giving another hint." You can also narrow the models your school allows for your class.

Test your instructions before students do

Rules given to chatbots leak. In one study, chatbots set up by 27 middle-school teachers followed the teachers' intended rules 70.4% of the time. Before a unit starts, try three prompts from a student account: a normal question, a request for the final answer, and a request your instructions forbid. Read writing AI instructions for assignments.

Review the work behind the answer

Open your class chats to see each student's question and the final answer they received. Students are told when you can review a chat, and Nexus records who opened each class conversation. Personal chats are not shown to teachers.

Look for patterns, not culprits: repeated requests to skip a step, misconceptions that recur across students, revisions that show progress. Turn what you find into a reteach, a small group or a conversation. Reviews are for teaching, not discipline by default.

"Where students need help" lists the concepts your class asked about over the past week, with counts and dates only: no student is named or ranked, and groups under 3 students are hidden.

A routine that works

Ask students to hand in a short reflection with AI-assisted work: the question they asked, one response they changed or rejected, and one thing they can now explain without help. It makes good AI use visible without treating a polished answer as evidence of learning.

Assignments

Students can paste an assignment into a class chat, and the class learning mode applies to the help they get.

Each assignment keeps its own chats, so a student returns to the same thread and you see the work in one place.

Why teachers stay in the loop

The most promising AI results put a person in the loop. In a randomized trial with 900 tutors and 1,800 K-12 students, students whose tutors had AI advice were 4 points more likely to master topics. No randomized trial of teachers reviewing student AI chats exists yet, so Nexus does not claim that review improves learning. It gives you the view; you decide what to do with it.

Use comparison as a lesson

Where your school allows it, students can compare answers from two or three models and keep the one they prefer. Make that a task, not a shortcut: ask students which answer they would accept, revise or reject, and why. That is a core competence in the OECD and European Commission AI literacy framework, and it shows students that models differ and make mistakes.