At ibl.ai, we have been working closely with SUNY’s David Flaten to enhance the learning experience for his students in a first-year freshman history seminar. In partnership with Professor Flaten, we developed AI Mentors on our MentorAI platform, specifically designed to support Lumen Learning’s US History 1 materials. These AI Mentors act as chapter-specific experts, providing students with seamless, round-the-clock support.

Professor Flaten emphasized the value of seamlessly integrating these AI Mentors with his narrative texts and primary source documents. “Linking the AI mentor directly to the texts used in class has been crucial in reinforcing the material students encounter during live lectures,” he noted. This tight integration not only bolsters student understanding but also reduces the temptation to search the web for unreliable or unrelated information, thereby discouraging plagiarism.

One of the standout features of our collaboration has been the 24/7 availability of AI Mentors. Students have access to reliable, professor-curated support at any time, which Professor Flaten believes is key to student success. He pointed out that this reliable, AI-driven assistance aligns closely with his teaching objectives, allowing students to reinforce core themes outside of the classroom.

This is what David Flaten had to say about our work together:
“ibl.ai's customized mentor provides my US history survey classes with a reliable AI partner. Building from my narrative text and primary support documents, the mentor removes the temptation to search the web and reinforces my selected student learning outcomes.

My US history survey students are combing the web for support materials. ibl.ai takes my narrative text and supporting primary source documents and builds the tutor from that chosen base and assists me in reinforcing the core themes of the class.

For those of us in the humanities and social sciences, ai has been seen as a 'cheating' mechanism. I value the ibl.ai as a supporting platform that takes my chosen narrative text and primary source documents—and from them builds a custom-made tutor to support my student learning outcomes. This provides seamless support for my students.

ibl.ai is a core component for my US history survey students--who need a guiding hand to review and digest both narrative and primary source texts. As instructor I deliver that, but there is always a need to support review of those materials, and the ibl.ai mentor can be that delivery mechanism and be far superior to fishing the web.  

ibl.ai directly benefits the US history survey student, who in seeking more comprehension and details--- can now easily access the customized mentor platform and be better assured the information correlates with their unique narrative text and professor curated primary sources.”

Building these AI Mentors was made possible through AWS Bedrock, a flexible and scalable solution that enabled us to create customized, high-performing AI models. With Bedrock’s powerful infrastructure, we were able to develop AI agents that precisely align with Professor Flaten’s course objectives and ensure complete data privacy and security.

By working with Professor Flaten and leveraging AWS Bedrock, ibl.ai has once again demonstrated how technology can bridge the gap between traditional classroom teaching and cutting-edge AI mentorship, ensuring students receive a fully personalized and academically rigorous learning experience.