Virtual Teaching Assistant

What is a VTA?

Virtual Teaching Assistants (VTAs) are specialized AI agents designed specifically for educational contexts. VTAs integrate with Learning Management Systems (Canvas, Blackboard) to help students with course materials, assignments, and questions.

Why Use VTAs?

• Course Integration: Automatically sync with Canvas and Blackboard

• 24/7 Availability: Students get help anytime

• Personalized Support: Tailored to specific course content

• Instructor Control: Configure behavior, tone, and boundaries

List VTAs

Retrieve a paginated list of VTAs with detailed configuration.

Endpoint Details

• Method: POST

• URL: {{baseURL}}/api/v1/list_vta

• Authentication: Required (JWT Bearer token)

Request Body

Example Request

curl -X POST "https://<baseURL>/api/v1/list_vta" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <jwt-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "page": 1,
    "limit": 5
  }'

Response

Status Code: 200 OK

{
  "current_page": 1,
  "next_page": 2,
  "total_pages": 10,
  "total_records": 47,
  "limit": 5,
  "data": [
    {
      "tenant_id": "d508624f-a0b7-4fd3-9511-05b18ca02784",
      "tenant_name": "University ABC",
      "user_id": "instructor@example.com",
      "user_name": "Prof. Smith",
      "user_email": "instructor@example.com",
      "user_role": 2,
      "id": "vta-123",
      "vta_id": "asst_XN5v91U6aVRS0r0pJHc6zN18",
      "assistant_type": "vta",
      "vta_basics": {
        "vta_name": "CS101_VTA",
        "vta_course_name": "Introduction to Computer Science",
        "vta_course": {...},
        "vta_human_ta": {
          "vta_ta_name": "Jane Doe",
          "vta_ta_email": "ta@example.com"
        },
        "vta_welcome_message": {
          "vta_welcome_message": "Hi! I'm your CS101 assistant...",
          "vta_welcome_message_enable": true
        },
        "vta_prompt_starters": {...},
        "vta_tone_voice": {...},
        "vta_instruction_style": {...},
        "vta_feedback_style": {...},
        "vta_academic_integrity": {...},
        "vta_offlimit_topics": {...}
      },
      "vta_overall_start_date": "2024-08-20T00:00:00Z",
      "vta_overall_end_date": "2024-12-15T23:59:59Z",
      "conversations": 342,
      "last_active": "2024-12-02T10:30:00Z",
      "vta_published": 1,
      "vta_active": 1,
      "vta_access": ["groups"]
    }
  ]
}

Get VTA Details

Retrieve complete configuration for a specific VTA.

Endpoint Details

• Method: POST

• URL: {{baseURL}}/api/v1/get_vta_details

• Authentication: Required (JWT Bearer token)

Request Body

Example Request

curl -X POST "https://<baseURL>/api/v1/get_vta_details" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <jwt-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "vta_id": "asst_XN5v91U6aVRS0r0pJHc6zN18"
  }'

Response

Status Code: 200 OK

{
  "data": {
    "tenant_id": "d508624f-a0b7-4fd3-9511-05b18ca02784",
    "tenant_name": "Royal Cyber",
    "user_id": "admincb@royalcyber.com",
    "user_name": "Admin CB",
    "user_role": 3,
    "assistant_type": "vta",
    "vta_basics": {
      "vta_name": "VTARobotVta",
      "vta_course_name": "Foundations of Robot Motion",
      "vta_human_ta": {
        "vta_ta_name": "sujaDevi",
        "vta_ta_email": "suja@educational.com"
      },
      "vta_welcome_message": {
        "vta_welcome_message": "Hi! I'm your Virtual Teaching Assistant...",
        "vta_welcome_message_enable": true
      }
    },
    "vta_advance": {
      "vta_llm_model": "gpt4o",
      "vta_web_search_enable": true,
      "vta_code_interpreter_enable": true,
      "vta_image_generation_enable": true
    },
    "vta_data_sources": {
      "vta_canvas_enable": true,
      "vta_blackboard_enable": false
    },
    "vta_pipeline_schedule": {
      "vta_pipeline_schedule_canvas_enable": true,
      "vta_pipeline_schedule_filestorage_enable": true
    },
    "vta_groups": [
      {
        "group_id": 1000385,
        "group_name": "VTARobotVta_Admin",
        "role_id": 3
      },
      {
        "group_id": 1000386,
        "group_name": "VTARobotVta_Instructor",
        "role_id": 2
      },
      {
        "group_id": 1000387,
        "group_name": "VTARobotVta_Students",
        "role_id": 1
      }
    ],
    "vta_created_at": "2025-10-06T13:09:22.390160Z",
    "vta_updated_at": "2025-10-06T20:26:37.431821Z",
    "vta_published": 1,
    "vta_active": 1
  }
}

VTA Configuration

Basic Settings (vta_basics)

Advanced Settings (vta_advance)

Data Sources (vta_data_sources)

Pipeline Schedule (vta_pipeline_schedule)

Groups (vta_groups)

VTAs automatically create three default groups:

• Admin Group: Full VTA management (role_id: 3)

• Instructor Group: Course-level access (role_id: 2)

• Student Group: Student access (role_id: 1)

VTA Status

Common Use Cases

List All Course VTAs

curl -X POST "https://<baseURL>/api/v1/list_vta" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <jwt-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "page": 1,
    "limit": 20
  }'

Get VTA Configuration

curl -X POST "https://<baseURL>/api/v1/get_vta_details" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <jwt-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "vta_id": "asst_XN5v91U6aVRS0r0pJHc6zN18"
  }'

Find VTAs by Course

List all VTAs and filter by vta_course_name in your application.

VTA vs Custom Agent

Error Responses

Best Practices

• Use pagination: Set appropriate page size (5-20 for VTAs)

• Cache details: Store VTA configuration to reduce API calls

• Check active status: Only show active VTAs to students

• Verify groups: Ensure students are in VTA student groups

• Monitor conversations: Track usage via conversations field