Your district controls this tool. District and school admins can turn any CodeHS AI tool on or off from the AI Policies page in the Administrator Dashboard. Student-facing tools also stay off until a teacher enables them for a class.
Smart Hints Overview
Smart Hints is a feature within the Code Editor that enables students to receive guidance from an AI assistant while working on assignments. This tool can help support students who are unsure how to approach a problem by offering direction and hints, without revealing the solution.
Turn On/Off Smart Hints
District and school admins can control if Smart Hints are available at their schools, and teachers can control if Smart Hints are turned on for their students. Smart Hints are turned off by default—students cannot see or access them until a teacher turns them on.
For District and School Admins
You can enable or disable Smart Hints for your district or school in the Administrator Dashboard's AI Policies app under "Student Tools."
When Smart Hints are disabled for a district or school, teachers cannot access settings to turn Smart Hints on for students.
When Smart Hints are enabled for a district or school, teachers can turn Smart Hints on or off for their students.
For Teachers
You need to enable this feature in the Smart Hints App before students can access and use Smart Hints. To toggle this feature:
In the Smart Hints app navigate to Smart Hints Settings
Select a Section from the Section drop-down menu in the top left
Toggle the setting to Enable/Disable For All Students or for individual students in your Section
How Students Access Smart Hints
When Smart Hints are turned on, students can access them by clicking on the Chat Icon on the left-hand side of the Code Editor.
Students are provided with four predefined prompts to assist them while coding:
I’m not sure where to start
Students can choose this option when they would like guidance on the first step of an assignment or need more clarification on the directions.
Give me a hint
Students can choose this option when they would like guidance on the next step of the assignment or need assistance in building off their current code.
Why is my code crashing?
Students can choose this option when their program is not working properly, and the AI can assist in identifying sources of errors.
Why is the autograder failing?
Students can choose this option when they would like AI to look at certain test cases and identify how the student’s program is not producing the expected Autograder result.
Students can choose among these prompts to direct the Karel AI assistant toward the part of the assignment they need assistance with.
💡 Karel AI responses are intended to provide hints and guidance, not direct answers. There is no chat function with the AI. Students are only allowed to choose one of the prompts above to interact with the AI.
Monitoring Smart Hints
To view Smart Hints for your entire section:
Go to the Smart Hints App
Select the Student Usage Dashboard
Use the dropdown to view a certain Section and Student
View the hints a student used on an assignment and view the AI Response by clicking the number of messages used or by the Assignment name.
To view Smart Hints in your Students' Code Editor:
Navigate to the student's assignment that you would like to see the AI Chat History for and view the student's Code Editor.
Click on the Chat Icon on the left-hand navigation.
To view Smart Hints in Fast Grade or AI Grading:
Click on the messages icon in the right-hand shortcuts menu.
View each Smart Hint prompted by the selected student in the pop-up modal.
Smart Hints Limitations
Students have a five-message daily limit.
Smart Hints is available as part of CodeHS Pro. To get CodeHS Pro for your school, contact our team at sales@codehs.com.