Selection Page

After signing in you land on the Selection page. This is your home base — it's where you choose how you want to talk to Dr. Olivia, see your past sessions, and (if you're an admin) jump to the admin dashboard.

Header Pills

The top-right of the header surfaces context-aware pills:

Faculty Mode — only shown when you're signed in as Faculty. Dr. Olivia will use the Faculty prompt instead of the Socratic student prompt.
Acting As User — only shown when an admin is impersonating someone via the Act-As override.
Administration Dashboard — admin-only link that opens the Administration Dashboard in a new tab.
My Settings — opens the My Settings dialog.

Narrow screens On screens narrower than 1400 px the pills collapse to icon-only badges to keep the header on a single row. Hover any icon to see its full label as a tooltip.

Choosing a Conversation Mode

The center of the page lists the conversation modes available to you:

Video with Avatar — The full Dr. Olivia avatar experience. You see her, she sees you (camera + mic). Best for active study sessions.
Audio with Avatar — Same as Video, but your camera stays off. Use when you don't want to be on camera but still want voice.
Text Chatbot — Type-only. Markdown is rendered. Best when you're in a quiet setting (library, lab) or want to keep a written record.

Click the card for the mode you want. You'll move into the corresponding session.

Choosing Your Tutor

Dr. Olivia leads a team of virtual tutors. When more than one tutor is available, your current tutor appears in the top-right corner of the page — tap it to open a quick pop-up and pick the face and voice you'd like to learn with. Every tutor is part of Dr. Olivia's team and teaches the same way, so it's purely a matter of preference. Dr. Olivia is the default, your choice is remembered for next time, and choosing is always optional. (Text Chat is always Dr. Olivia.)

Continuing a Previous Session

Each session has a Continue action in the history list. Selecting it restarts the conversation with full context — Dr. Olivia remembers the previous greeting, the last topic, and any images that were generated.

Sessions you've ended are not deleted — ending is reversible. Re-opening a session counts as the same conversation, not a new one.

System Banners

Administrators can post a banner that appears at the top of the page (informational, warning, or notification). If the banner is set to Once mode, it disappears after you dismiss it; if it's set to Always, it stays until the admin removes it.

Status Badges

Below Dr. Olivia's portrait, small status badges appear when certain features are configured for your account — for example, the PubMed badge means your personal PubMed API key is in use, giving you higher rate limits on biomedical literature lookups.