Breadcrumbs Surpass Copilot > Surpass Copilot best practice

Surpass Copilot best practice

IMPORTANT: Surpass Copilot is not available by default. If you are interested in using this functionality, contact your Surpass Customer Success Manager.

Surpass Copilot can generate complete Multiple Choice questions including question stems, answer options, and correct answers.

For general information on and instructions for Surpass Copilot, including how to set Surpass Copilot up and how item authors can use Surpass Copilot in Item Authoring, refer to the relevant links on the Surpass Copilot page.

This page contains best practice guidance and tips on how to get the most out of using Surpass Copilot.

In this section

Item-level

Refining the prompt

  • The prompt sent to Copilot sends the following information, in priority order:
    1. Question Stem (existing, item-level)
    2. Answer Options (existing, item-level)
    3. Item Guidance (item-level)
    4. Subject Guidance (subject-level)
    5. Question Guidance (subject-level)
    6. Answer Option Guidance (subject-level)
    7. Source Material (existing, item-level; PDF, DOCX, or TXT files only)
  • Copilot returns the same content if the information in the prompt stay the same. Equally, conflicting information in the prompt will lead to conflicting content.
  • If your prompt lacks relevant information, Copilot will search the internet for answers. For example, if your uploaded domain knowledge covers forms of dance and you ask it to generate a question on biology, Copilot will look online for relevant information.

Iterate and refine

TIP: Iterate and refine your prompt by changing any of the elements that make up the prompt, listed above, and generating again. Try promoting any of the information generated and then specifying further instruction related to these elements in the guidance.
EXAMPLE: The difficulty of my correct answer needs to be increased.

Clear and concise

TIP: Ensure your guidance is clear, concise, and avoids ambiguity. If a term can have multiple meanings, clarify which one you mean. For example, instead of “Write me an item about biology,” try:
EXAMPLE: Create an item about the process of photosynthesis in plants.

Background and context

TIP: Include relevant background information and context to help Copilot understand your request better. You can also provide Copilot with specific URLs or tell it to refer to specific documents in your uploaded domain knowledge.
EXAMPLE: In the context of high school biology, give me an item on the process of photosynthesis from ‘Textbook A, 2019’.

Keywords

TIP: Use important keywords related to your topic.
EXAMPLE: For a high school biology class, create a question about the light-dependent reactions in photosynthesis specifically for aquatic plants.

Learning Outcomes

TIP: State which learning outcome(s) your question is trying to achieve. Note that Copilot does not use tags as part of its content generation, so you may also need to provide more context and elaborate on what the aims of the learning outcome are.
EXAMPLE: The question should achieve the learning outcome ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy III’.

Generating distractor answer options

  • If you only want to use Copilot for generating distractor answer options, complete your item’s question stem and correct answer before generating item content. Copilot will still generate a question stem and correct answer option (and they may be different to yours), but you can ignore these if you choose.
TIP: To generate distractor answer options that each contain a combination of possible answers, include this instruction in your provided guidance.
EXAMPLE: Generate answer options that each have two options, for example, ‘x and y’.

Checking citations

  • Citations display the URL and Domain Name from which content is sourced.
  • Copilot will use the internet as a data source if there is not enough relevant information in the domain knowledge (uploaded at subject-level), even if Limit content generation to domain knowledge is selected.
  • Copilot can make mistakes. It is essential you review any generated content, including the sources cited, before using it in a live test.

Subject-level

Providing Surpass Copilot Guidance

  • If no guidance is provided in the Subject guidance field, general guidance needs to be added at item-level (in Item Authoring) before content can be generated.
  • Copilot can also be provided with information about the standard format and style of question stems and answer options in your subject to help it generate better question stem suggestions.
TIP: Use the Subject guidance field to outline your preferred question style at a high level, including difficulty level and type of question, much like a style guide for item authors.

Uploading domain knowledge

  • You can upload files up to a maximum of 200MB, with a per document limit of 20MB per document. Larger file sizes may slow down the service and therefore content generation.
  • Copilot will use the internet as a data source if there is not enough relevant information in the Domain Knowledge, even if Limit content generation to domain knowledge is selected.
  • If you leave Limit content generation to domain knowledge and Limit distractor generation to domain knowledge disabled, users can enable/disable these at item-level in Item Authoring.
TIP: When adding to domain knowledge, ensure it is fully uploaded before generating any item content in Item Authoring. A successful upload is confirmed by a tick/check icon.