Ask Scope

Ask Scope answers questions about your courses from the search bar you already use. Ask “when is the midterm?”, “what’s the late policy in Chem 3A?”, or “what do I need to work on for lab this week?”, and Scope looks through your deadlines, grades, course materials, and calendar to answer. If you ask it to, it can also add a study to-do or put a study block on your Google Calendar, and you can undo either one. Ask Scope is designed for studying. It’s set up not to draft or complete work you’ll turn in for a grade, and it has no way to submit anything.

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Before you begin

• Sign in to Scope with Google. Ask Scope needs an internet connection and a Scope sign-in. See Sign in to Scope.
• Let Scope find your courses first. See Connect your courses.
• Ask Scope runs in the search bar on Canvas and Brightspace pages. It isn’t in the toolbar popup.

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Ask a question

The Ask Scope row appears when what you type reads like a question: it ends with a question mark, starts with a word like “what”, “how”, or “when”, is five words or longer, or asks Scope to schedule something. Shorter phrases are treated as searches. To force a question, add a question mark.

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Ask a follow-up

After an answer, a box that says Ask a follow-up… appears under it. Type your next question and press Enter. Scope remembers the conversation, so you can say things like “and the one after that?” or “take me there”. To go back to search, press Esc. Asking a new question from the search box starts a new conversation.

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What Scope can look at

Scope chooses what to check based on your question. You see each step while it works. Scope can’t change anything in Canvas. It can’t submit work, post to discussions, or change grades.

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Let Scope add things for you

You can ask Scope to take an action, such as:

• “Add a to-do to review chapter 4 before Friday.”
• “Find a free hour tomorrow and add a study block for the midterm.”
• “Write me a study plan for the next week and save it.”

When Scope finishes, it lists what it did, such as ✓ Added study to-do: and the to-do. To reverse an action, click Undo next to it. Undo removes the to-do, deletes the calendar event, or removes the saved plan.

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When Scope asks before adding

Sometimes Scope comes up with a to-do, calendar event, or study plan after reading your pages or files, rather than because you asked for it in your own words. Then it shows the change and asks first, with a note: Scope came up with this while reading your pages and files. Check it before you add it.

• To accept it, click Add (or Save for a study plan).
• To skip it, click Not Now.

If the time was taken by the time you click Add, Scope says That time isn’t free anymore, so nothing was added.

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Find what you need for a lab or section

Ask something like “what do I need to work on for Bio 1A lab?” Scope builds a checklist card for your next session:

• What to do: work that’s due, with when it’s due.
• Worth a look: readings and files that go with it.
• Each item shows where it came from, such as Canvas, Calendar, or This page, and has an Open link.

To open everything on the card at once, click Open All. Scope asks you to confirm, for example Open 5 tabs?, and explains that they’ll open together in a new tab group. Click Open. The first time, Chrome asks whether Scope can manage your tab groups. If you don’t allow it, the tabs still open, but not in a group. If Scope finds nothing, it says Nothing found for that. Try naming the course, like “Bio 1A lab”.

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Go straight to a page

Ask Scope to take you somewhere, such as “open the syllabus” or “take me to the midterm study guide”. If Scope finds exactly one page, it opens it in a new tab. If it finds several, it shows each with an Open button so you choose.

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Make answers fit you

If you fill in your student profile, Scope uses it to tailor answers. To edit it, open Settings, click your name at the top, and fill in fields such as School, Grade / year, Major(s), and Career plans. Click Save profile.

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Quick answers with sources

Some commands answer straight from your course materials and show numbered sources under the answer. Click a source to open it. These include Smart study plan, Practice quiz, and Daily briefing, and typing ask before a question, such as ask what's the late policy. See Commands. If Chrome’s built-in AI is available on your computer, these quick answers run on your computer, even when you’re signed out. Otherwise, they need you to be signed in. If you see Getting the local model ready…, Chrome is setting up its built-in AI. Wait for it to finish.

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Messages you might see

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What’s sent when you ask

To write an Ask Scope answer, Scope sends your question, your student profile, and the parts of your course materials, deadlines, grades, and calendar that it needs to an AI service. The answer comes back to your browser. Scope doesn’t have an AI model of its own. For details, see Privacy and your data.

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