What you build
Pedagogy-shaped assistance:
- Scaffolded assignments: constraints, test harnesses, rubric alignment.
- Office-hours style explanations that cite course materials—not random internet lore.
- Integrity-friendly workflows: what is allowed collaboration vs solo work—encoded in prompts and environment.
Educators in shoutouts care that learners understand, not only ship.
Why CoWork OS is a strong fit
- Sandboxes and approvals reduce “agent deleted prod” class accidents in classrooms.
- Skills can embed syllabus rules and forbidden shortcuts.
- Artifacts (repos, PDFs) make assessment possible—chat-only demos are weak evidence.
How to use
- Publish policy: what tools may run, what data may leave campus VPN.
- Template starter repos with tests students must pass.
- Require reflection notes alongside generated code—pedagogy check.
- Monitor for plagiarism patterns; agents make collusion weirder—stay explicit.
- Iterate prompts from where students actually get stuck.
Prerequisites
- FERPA / local education privacy rules understood for your context.
- Lab machines or cloud credits with hard spend caps.
Steps
- Pilot with TAs before students.
- Baseline without agents—know the honest difficulty curve.
- Layer hints level by level; hide full solutions until due.
- Collect failure modes; adjust scaffolding.
- Survey weekly: comprehension vs shortcutting.
Suggested prompts
- “Explain why this works without giving the full solution.”
- “Generate three failing tests the student should make pass.”
- “List misconceptions common for week 3 on this topic.”
Launch readiness
- Academic integrity statement updated for generative tools.
- Support load estimated—agents increase question volume sometimes.
- Accessible paths for students without newest laptops.
Common pitfalls
- Solution leakage through over-helpful agents.
- Unequal access if only some students have API keys.
- Evaluating chatty output instead of runnable projects.
- Burnout for TAs reviewing agent slop.