Socrates: A Socratic Dialogue Tool Augmented with GenerativeAI

Socrates is an open source, custom-built WordPress plugin that provides a chat-like interface helping guide students through a socratic exercise to dig into their presuppositions or assumptions in an argument they are making.

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A screenshot of the Socrates interface with part of a pre-existing chat showing. The chat is about loot boxes in video games and the legal impacts of gambling.

Some of the ways to use Socrates

Socrates provides 3 distinct features, usable independently or combined

An Automatic Research Aggregator

Create a curated database of research material published on the web, ready for you to read without needing to manually filter out irrelevant items.

A ‘News of the Week’ Post Publisher

Exposing your students to relevant, contextual, contemporaneous news can be pedagogically beneficial. And time-consuming. Socrates can help with that.

A Socratic Dialogue Critical Thinking Tool

Socrates encourages your students to think critically about their arguments or position statements, with thought-provoking, contextual questions.

How Can I Use Socrates?

Socrates is available to all instructors and faculty at UBC. The only prerequisite is a WordPress website upon which you can install plugins. It is available on UBC CMS and UBC Blogs by request. If you or your department runs their own instance of WordPress you can download the plugin from the UBC Github Repo.

Download Socrates

30-Second Demo

Heard Enough and want to get started?

Request Socrates on Your UBC CMS or UBC Blogs Website

Request Socrates on Your Site