The Ultimate Guide to Shortcut Buttons in LearnWise AI
What we learned from how students and faculty start conversations with AI assistants
Shortcut buttons are the chips people see before they type in chat. This guide shares patterns from LearnWise customers: how to configure them in admin, what works in practice, and copy-paste examples your team can use.
What are shortcut buttons?
They give people faster paths to FAQs, common tasks, and high-impact actions without typing a long question. On a course tutor, an enrollment site, or a student services assistant, they are often the first thing someone taps.
Each shortcut has a name (what shows in chat) and an action (what happens when someone clicks). In most successful setups the action is Send Text Into Chat: a short label on the button and a longer instruction the assistant follows behind the scenes.
Why they matter: Most institutions in our export (76%) configure at least one shortcut button, and a large share of conversations begin when someone taps a chip instead of typing first.
Most successful setups use Send Text Into Chat: a short label on the button and a longer instruction the assistant follows behind the scenes. You can also use external links, escalation handoffs, or Q&A Set answers when a fixed response from your knowledge base fits better.
Example: what students see
You can drag shortcuts to reorder them in admin. More than five buttons group under More in the chat widget.
Insights
What shortcut-button usage looks like across LearnWise customers: headline patterns, what students and faculty choose when they tap a chip, and how assistants are set up in practice.
What students choose
Practice, study plan, and summarize lead; tutor topics dominate.
How shortcuts open
Most stay in the chat; a smaller share use links, handoffs, or curated answers.
Order in the list
The button at the top of the list gets the most taps; order matters more than adding more buttons.
By use case
How institutions deploy assistants today, and which shortcut patterns show up most often.
Practical tips
Shortcut library
Copy-paste starting points for faculty and instructional designers. Each example explains what the shortcut is for, then pairs a button title with message prompts to paste into admin. Replace [Institution] where noted.
Setup walkthrough: LearnWise Support.
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Take your shortcuts further with Flows
Shortcut buttons send a single message into the chat. Flows go further, they let your assistant follow a custom response sequence with triggers, conditions, and branching logic. The pro move is to point a shortcut button at a flow instead of a simple chat prompt, so a single click launches a guided experience rather than a one-shot answer.
Flows can be triggered by a user's message, by the chat opening, or by a page load, and can be filtered by URL, user role, or scheduled date range. That makes them ideal whenever the right response depends on who is asking or what they want next.
A few examples of shortcut-plus-flow combinations that work well:
- Branch by audience. An "I want to apply" shortcut can kick off a flow that first asks whether the student is domestic, international, or transferring, then walks each path with the right deadlines, document checklist, and contacts.
- Multi-step guidance. A "Help me plan my semester" shortcut can launch a flow that gathers program, term, and commitments across several turns before drafting a personalized plan.
- Conditional resources. A "How do I appeal a grade?" shortcut can branch into a flow that surfaces the right policy document and form based on the student's faculty.
- Onboarding journeys. A "New here: show me around" shortcut can launch a flow on chat-open that checks enrollment status, asks what to set up first, and walks the student through it.
Rule of thumb: if your shortcut needs to ask a clarifying question to do its job well, it should probably be a flow. If the answer is the same for every student, a plain Send Text Into Chat shortcut still wins.
Do and don't
Do
- Put your best task at the top of the list and sort shortcuts in admin when priorities change.
- Use three focused shortcuts before adding more.
- Write labels in the student's voice (questions and first person).
- Keep the label short and catchy; put the real instruction in the chat prompt (often 200–500 characters for top performers).
- Update prompts over time as your courses or services change.
- Prefer Send Text Into Chat so people stay in the assistant.
Don't
- Leave the default "Who are you?" at the top forever. Identity shortcuts are common in admin but rarely what students tap first.
- Lead a tutor with roleplay or niche ideas before quiz and study patterns.
- Use abstract office labels ("Account Management", "Academic Resources").
- Ship unchanged sample template buttons from onboarding.
- Put LMS study shortcuts on a public enrollment site.
- Add buttons just because you can. Extra slots at the bottom rarely get used.