Brainfuse for Instructors & TAs

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Academic Tutoring with Brainfuse
• How to Access Brainfuse through Canvas
• Professor Assigned Tasks in Brainfuse
• Brainfuse Writing Lab Best Practices

Academic Tutoring with Brainfuse

Brainfuse offers live tutoring via a synchronous whiteboard-and-chat platform with optional audio interaction in the following subject areas:

• Business – Accounting, Economics and Finance
• Computers and Tech – Excel, PowerPoint, Windows, Word
• English – College Reading, Reading, Writing
• Math – Calculus, College Algebra, Geometry, Liberal Arts Math, Pre-Algebra, Precalculus, Statistics, Trigonometry
• Science – Anatomy & Physiology, Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics

Additionally, Brainfuse Writing Lab tutors help students become better writers by providing constructive feedback on writing assignments within 24 hours. Students submit their papers via the Brainfuse Tutoring button in Canvas.

How to Access Brainfuse through Canvas

Brainfuse Tutoring is housed in the Canvas course site in the left-hand navigation bar.

• Click on that navigation link and click the Launch Brainfuse button as indicated below.

• After launching the tool, the Brainfuse Tutor website will open in another tab in your browser. You can click through either to the Live Help (on the left-hand side of screen, circled in red in the screenshot below) or to the Writing Lab (on the right-hand side of the screen, circled in black).   

• Update your Live Help preferences by clicking on the "Preferences" button (small circle in the picture above).  You can choose to chat with a live tutor or enable the audio option. 

Professor Assigned Tasks in Brainfuse

Professors can assign tasks for students to complete in Brainfuse if they feel tutoring may help with particular assignments.

The student will click the link in their email to take them to the task page in Brainfuse. On that page, they will see a button that allows them to submit their work. By using that link, the professor will be able to follow their progress and see any work from the student or tutor. 

Assign tutoring to a specific student:

First, go to Brainfuse through your Canvas site (instructions on how to do that are above.)

Then, select Faculty Dashboard and Create a new task now.

Next, you will need to select which type of tutoring you would like the student to have.

If you select live tutoring, here is the next screen you will see:

Please make sure to identify yourself in the instructions so they know you assigned this task for them and that they need to complete it by clicking through the link that will be in the email.

Next, you will select which student this task is for:

You will select Add, choose the canvas course your student is in, and then the name of the student.

Please select Done when you are finished.

On this final screen, you can view the student's status, delete the assigned task, or extend the deadline.

If you select Writing Lab, you will be brought to this screen and will need to select the type of paper the student is submitting to the writing tutor.

After you hit continue, you will then need to provide instructions to the tutor. Make sure you clearly state the instructions for both the tutor and the student.

You will select Add, choose the canvas course your student is in, and then the name of the student.

Please Select done when you are finished.

On this final screen, you can view the student's status, delete the assigned task, or extend the deadline.

Brainfuse Writing Lab Best Practices

Please note that Brainfuse Writing Lab tutors will respond within 24 hours. Brainfuse is best used as a proactive writing tool, and so if you know you will need writing support, please budget this into your paper writing process and do not leave it until the last minute. 

Questions or challenges?

If you have Brainfuse-specific questions please reach out to Online Learning at online-learning-help@sas.upenn.edu and the Online Learning Support team will get back to you as soon as possible!

We suggest reading the Brainfuse User Guide before using the tool for the first time.