For Parents & Counselors

CAIA stands for "college advising intelligent agent." It is a web based environment where high school students can interact with a virtual college counselor. Students complete a profile of themselves and are then able to get the personalized, easy to understand information they need when it comes to the college application process. CAIA is easy for students to use because we use a language-based interface so they can just ask their questions to the computer like they would ask their parents or school counselors.

An intelligent agent is a computerized system that has some level of artificial intelligence built into it, usually in a specific knowledge domain. It can understand information in the same ways as humans do and can present that information differently based on who the user is.

In this case, CAIA is an intelligent agent that has been constructed by educators and counselors to provide expert information about the college application process.

In creating CAIA, our intent is not to replace school counselors or parental advice. However, we know that school counselors are often over extended in their responsibilities to their students and it is hard to find enough time to help students as much as they might need it. We created CAIA as a resource for students who, for whatever reason, cannot talk to their counselor at school. As demonstrated in our video prototype, counselors are also encouraged to point students to CAIA as a place to do some initial research before meeting in person. Counselors are an important source of information for high school students, and we would never think a computerized system would be able to provide 100% of the same support.

When it comes to information about the college application process, the volume and complexity of the information that is available is extremely overwhelming. It is difficult for students to find the information they need and to figure out how certain aspects of the process pertain to their lives. While school counselors are a great source of this type of information, they are often times overworked and are not always available.

CAIA is valuable resource for students because it presents only the information that is relevant to students lives, without confusing the situation with a lot of extra information. CAIA is also available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Today's high school students, especially those who are college bound, already have very busy schedules. With CAIA, they can fit college research into their schedule at any time of the day.

The reason that CAIA is so different from other websites containing college information is that it provides personalized information to students about the precise steps they need to take to get into college. We understand that the information in student profiles is extremely sensitive, and it is kept strictly private. However, having this information accurately entered into the system is the key to students getting the most out of CAIA.

As with any web based service, it is important to question how trustworthy any information is that is provided. CAIA was created as a Masters project for Stanford University's Learning, Design and Technology program in July 2008. The information contained within CAIA all came from experts both within the School of Education and external college counselors.

CAIA was created to address two growing problems in the US school system. First, that school counselors, on average, are responsible for meeting the needs of over 500 students each school year. And second, that many students in low income areas of the US lack sufficient access to information about applying to college and often lack the knowledge that it is even possible for them to attend college.

CAIA is a free service because we want it to be accessible to the people who need it the most. We feel that enough barriers to college have been erected in our society, and that we do not want to contribute to that problem.

The ultimate goal of CAIA is to be a one-stop resource for college information in all areas - including academics, testing, and even the college search. However, because we are aiming to help students from less affluent areas, we have decided to put our initial focus on financial information because it is the most complex part of applying to college and has the most misconceptions and misunderstanding associated with it. Over time, we hope to add more information to CAIA to help students with other parts of the process as well.

Yes. In spring of 2008, the first prototype of CAIA was tested with students from College Track in East Palo Alto, California. We had students there use CAIA as well as a government-sponsored student aid site and found that CAIA was much effective at helping students understand important facts about college finances.

The most important thing any parent or counselor can do is to give full support to your child or student who is hoping to attend college. The way our system works today, it is possible for anyone who works hard enough to get into college, but having the support of those around you is crucial to success. Feel free to sit and use CAIA with your child or student to see what it is all about and maybe learn something yourself!