Uploading Documents
You can hand Dr. Olivia a file and work through it together — a paper you've been assigned, a worksheet from a professor, your own notes, a set of practice questions. She reads it and the two of you take it from there.
How to upload
| Where you are | What to click |
|---|---|
| Avatar — video or audio | The Upload button in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen |
| Text chatbot | The paperclip beside the message box |
| Any session | The upload button () in the Files section of the session panel on the right |
In an audio session she'll tell you out loud when the file is ready, so you don't need to be watching the screen.
Your files during a session
The Files section at the bottom of the session panel lists every file Dr. Olivia can see right now. Check it if her answers seem to be about a file when you meant something else.
- Put a file away with the × beside it. It goes to your archive, not the bin
- Text chatbot: the paperclip beside a file attaches it to your next message, so your question is about that file. The files attached to the message you are writing are shown just above the message box
- In an audio-only call the panel sits beside the transcript. On a phone or a narrow window, open it with the tab on the right edge of the screen
Choosing files at the start of a session
If you have files saved, Dr. Olivia asks when a session starts whether to bring them in:
- Bring all — she can see all of them, the same as last time
- Choose files… — tick the ones you want for this session
- Bring none — start with a clean slate
Anything you leave out goes to your archive. Nothing is lost, and you can restore it whenever you need it again.
What you can upload
- PDFs — papers, handouts, worksheets, slide exports
- Documents, slides and spreadsheets — Word
(
.docx), PowerPoint (.pptx) and Excel (.xlsx), plus the OpenDocument versions (.odt,.odp,.ods) - Images — PNG or JPEG: a photo of a textbook page, a diagram, a screenshot of a question
- Text files —
.txt,.md, or anything you've saved as plain text
Up to 20 MB and 300 pages per file, and up to 50 files saved at a time.
Older Office files (.doc, .ppt, .xls) and files
with macros (.docm, .pptm, .xlsm) aren't
accepted. Open them and save as .docx, .pptx,
.xlsx or a PDF, then upload that.
Scanned PDFs
Dr. Olivia reads the text in a PDF. A scanned PDF has no text in it — only a picture of a page — so there's nothing for her to read. She'll tell you straight away rather than guessing at what it says.
Images are different: she looks at a photo or screenshot directly. So if a PDF comes back as a scan, take a photo of the page (or a screenshot) and upload that instead. A text-based copy works too — download the original from Canvas or the publisher rather than scanning a printout.
What she does with it
- Short files she simply reads in full
- Longer ones she searches as you go, pulling up the part that matters to what you're asking
- She'll tell you the page she's reading from, so you can follow along in your own copy
She'll also tell you when an upload disagrees with your course materials. That's not her being difficult — handouts can be dated or simplified, and working out why two sources differ is usually more useful than either one on its own.
Your files stay yours
- Only you can see what you upload. Other students can't, and nothing you upload goes into anyone else's session
- Files stay available across sessions — upload a paper today, come back to it next week without uploading it again
- You can put away anything you upload, any time, with the × on the file. It moves to your archive
- A file you haven't put away moves to the archive by itself after 180 days, so your files list stays current
The archive
Every file you put away is kept in your archive. That includes files you removed with the ×, files you left out at the start of a session, and files that passed 180 days. Open the archive with the box icon () in the Files section of the session panel.
- Each file shows why it was archived and when
- Restore brings a file straight back into your files, ready to use, with nothing to upload again
- Uploading a file that is already in your archive restores it rather than storing a second copy
- Archived files stay in the archive until you restore them. Dr. Olivia can't see them while they're there
Uploading a file is not the same as Dr. Olivia remembering something about you. What she records about your learning comes from how you work through problems with her — not from what a document happens to claim.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| "That file type can't be uploaded" | It isn't one of the formats listed above — for example a video or a zip file. Save or export it as a PDF and try again |
| "That is an older Office format" | It's a .doc, .ppt or .xls. Open it, save
it as .docx, .pptx, .xlsx or a PDF,
and upload that |
| "That file contains macros" | Save it without macros (as .docx, .pptx or
.xlsx) and try again |
| "That PDF contains embedded scripts, attachments or forms" | The file has active content in it, which we don't accept. Opening it and printing it to a new PDF usually clears it |
| "No readable text — this looks like a scan" | See Scanned PDFs above. Nothing is broken; upload a photo of the page instead |
| "You already have 50 documents saved" | Put one you're finished with away (the ×) and upload again. The same limit applies when you restore a file from the archive |
For faculty Faculty
You can upload your own files and ask about them the same way — a draft exam, a syllabus, a paper you're reviewing. Dr. Olivia will be direct about problems she finds: an ambiguous stem, a distractor that doesn't work, a mismatch with the material it's meant to assess.
Files you upload go on your record, not a student's, and students never see them. They are listed in the session panel in your sessions too, and you get the same question at the start of each session, so a file from last week doesn't stay in Dr. Olivia's view unless you want it there.