MSUBot

Inspiration

Many university courses use Discord to communicate with students, but managing a class server can quickly become difficult for instructors. Professors need to verify that members are actually enrolled students, keep everyone aware of assignment deadlines, and answer a large number of repetitive questions about course material.

At the same time, tools like ChatGPT are becoming increasingly common among students. While AI can be helpful for learning, instructors often worry about students using it privately to obtain answers rather than understanding the material.

MSUBot was created to address these problems by turning Discord into a structured classroom platform. The goal was to give instructors tools to manage their class community while also providing students with an AI-powered assistant designed to guide learning rather than provide shortcuts.

What It Does

MSUBot is a Discord-based classroom management bot designed for university courses. It provides tools that help professors organize class servers while supporting student learning.

Key features include:

Student Verification and Access Control

Students verify themselves using their name and university email address. The bot checks the information against a class roster, assigns the correct role, and unlocks access to class channels. This ensures that only enrolled students can participate in the server.

Assignment and Due Date Reminders

Professors can upload assignment schedules or add them manually. MSUBot automatically sends daily and weekly reminders in designated channels so students stay aware of upcoming deadlines.

AI-Powered Teaching Assistant

Students can ask questions using a Discord command that creates a public thread. The bot responds using an AI model that is guided by carefully designed prompts and course materials. Instead of simply giving answers, the bot provides hints, explanations, and guidance that help students work toward solutions.

Transparent Learning Discussions

All AI interactions occur in public threads so instructors and other students can see the conversation. This turns the bot into a collaborative learning tool instead of a private answer generator.

How We Built It

MSUBot was built as a modular Discord bot designed specifically for educational environments.

Core Technologies

• Discord API for bot integration and slash commands
• Node.js / TypeScript backend for bot logic
• OpenAI API for the AI teaching assistant
• CSV / spreadsheet parsing for class rosters and assignment schedules

System Design

The bot handles several responsibilities:

1. User verification
   • Students submit their name and university email
   • The bot checks the data against the class roster
   • Verified students are assigned roles and given channel access
2. Schedule management
   • Professors upload assignment schedules
   • The bot stores and tracks upcoming due dates
   • Automated reminders are sent to the class
3. AI question answering
   • Students submit questions via a slash command
   • The bot creates a Discord thread for the discussion
   • The question is sent to the OpenAI API along with system prompts and course context
   • The response is posted back to the thread

The system was designed so that instructors can configure features individually depending on how they want to use the bot in their course.

Challenges We Ran Into

One of the biggest challenges was designing the AI assistant so that it would be helpful without enabling academic dishonesty.

Standard AI responses often provide direct answers, which could undermine assignments. To address this, the system uses structured prompts and context to encourage the model to guide students toward understanding rather than providing full solutions.

Another challenge was creating a flexible system that could support different instructors and courses, since each class may want different combinations of features such as reminders, AI assistance, or student verification.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

• Building a bot that combines classroom management and AI tutoring
• Designing a verification system that automatically manages student roles
• Implementing automated assignment reminder workflows
• Creating an AI assistant that encourages learning and discussion instead of shortcuts

Most importantly, MSUBot demonstrates how AI can be integrated into education in a way that supports instructors and promotes transparency rather than replacing traditional learning.

What We Learned

Through building MSUBot we learned:

• How to design Discord bots for large community servers
• Techniques for prompt engineering and AI response control
• Managing user permissions and roles in automated systems
• Designing tools that balance automation, usability, and academic integrity

We also gained experience building software intended for real classroom environments, where reliability and clarity are especially important.

What's Next for MSUBot

Future improvements could include:

• Deeper integration with learning management systems
• Improved AI responses through structured course datasets
• More advanced analytics for instructors
• Expanded tools for managing assignments and announcements

The long-term goal is to create a system that turns Discord into a fully featured platform for collaborative learning.