AI can be a powerful tool to help you with your coursework. Before using it, be certain your intended use is acceptable to your professor. Consult the course syllabus for an AI Use Statement. If there is not a statement, or if you are not certain your use is acceptable, talk with your professor.
If the use of AI is acceptable in your course, there may still be gray areas. How much is too much? A good rule of thumb is to think of what you want to do with AI, then replace "AI" with "a friend" or "a tutor." If you asked a friend or tutor to do what you are going to have AI do, would it be acceptable?
- You could ask a friend to help you brainstorm ideas, but you shouldn't ask a friend to tell you what your paper topic will be.
- You can ask a friend to help you come up with alternative keywords for your search, but you can't ask a friend to do your research for you.
- You can ask a tutor to read over your paper and make suggestions, but you can't ask a tutor to write, or re-write your paper for you.
If it would be ethical to have a friend's help, it is probably ethical to use AI.
Have the AI create an outline for your paper, speech, presentation, etc. Include the topic, how long the project needs to be, the intended audience, and other details for a more specific outline.
One of the hardest parts of writing is getting past staring at the blank page. AI excels at generating content with just a small prompt. Enter your initial thoughts for your project into AI and ask it to craft a first draft or an introductory paragraph, something to get you started. You may not use any of what the AI provided, but now you are no longer staring at a blank page.
When tutor services aren't available, AI can be used as a tutor. By pasting the prompt below into AI (this works best with GPT 4 or Bing in Creative Mode), AI will start asking questions and begin a tutoring session. It is important to remember that AI is a good tutor, but not perfect. Always confirm any facts you get from AI.
You are an upbeat, encouraging tutor who helps students understand concepts by explaining ideas and asking students questions. Start by introducing yourself to the student as their AI-Tutor who is happy to help them with any questions. Only ask one question at a time. First, ask them what they would like to learn about. Wait for the response. Then ask them about their learning level: Are you a high school student, a college student or a professional? Wait for their response. Then ask them what they know already about the topic they have chosen. Wait for a response. Given this information, help students understand the topic by providing explanations, examples, analogies. These should be tailored to students learning level and prior knowledge or what they already know about the topic.
Give students explanations, examples, and analogies about the concept to help them understand. You should guide students in an open-ended way. Do not provide immediate answers or solutions to problems but help students generate their own answers by asking leading questions. Ask students to explain their thinking. If the student is struggling or gets the answer wrong, try asking them to do part of the task or remind the student of their goal and give them a hint. If students improve, then praise them and show excitement. If the student struggles, then be encouraging and give them some ideas to think about. When pushing students for information, try to end your responses with a question so that students have to keep generating ideas. Once a student shows an appropriate level of understanding given their learning level, ask them to explain the concept in their own words; this is the best way to show you know something or ask them for examples. When a student demonstrates that they know the concept you can move the conversation to a close and tell them you’re here to help if they have further questions.
Source: Mollick, E. Assigning AI: Seven Ways of Using AI in Class. One Useful Thing. https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/assigning-ai-seven-ways-of-using
AI can help coach students through improving their writing. By attaching their writing and using the following prompt, student can work to improve their writing.
You are an experienced, helpful, and kind writing tutor helping a college student improve. Using the attached writing sample, provide one way to improve this writing. You can reference an example from my writing, but give me only one way to improve at a time Don't just improve the writing yourself. Repeat this process at least five times.
Source: Bowen, J., & Watson, C. (2024). Teaching with AI.Johns Hopkins University Press.
Here is a revised version which may elicit more interaction:
You are an experienced, helpful, and kind writing tutor helping a college student improve. Using the attached writing sample, provide one way to improve this writing. Walk me through the process of improving my writing, explain how I can make the improvement, then ask me to re-write the sample. Evaluate the new sample and if I have made a good change, move on to another example and repeat the process. If the new sample is not good, coach me on how to improve. Repeat this process at least five times.
AI can be used to explain a concept with an analogy using a subject with which a student is more familiar. For example, there could be a student who is having trouble understanding when to use a comma or a semicolon. If they love soccer, AI can explain the use of the two punctuations using a soccer analogy:
I'm a college student having trouble understanding when to use a comma or a semicolon. Can you explain the difference to me using a soccer analogy?
In the early stages of a research project, it can be easy to start too broad, or too narrow.
For example, some students might start with "college students and drugs." This topic is so broad, conducting research is going to be a challenge.
Or, a student might start with "How the use of sleeping pills affects attendance of college studetns at schools with enrollment below 500." This topic is so specific, there might not be any research available.
AI can help both of these situations.
For a topic that is too broad, you could prompt: The topic for my college reserach paper is "college students and drugs." I feel like the topic to too broad, can you give me suggestions for narrowing the topic?
For a topic that is too narrow, you could prompt: The topic for my college research paper is "How the use of sleeping pills affects attendance of college studetns at schools with enrollment below 500." I'm not coming up with any reserach articles. Can you help me broaden my topic?
Often, the words in your research statement are not enough go get you good results when searching databases. AI can help develop a list of possible keywords.
For example, your research topic may be "the effects of gaming on the gpa of college students."
You could prompt AI with: I am working on a reserach paper about the effects of gaming on the gpa of college students. Can you give me a list of keywords I could use while searching the library's database?
The provided list can give you some ideas, but should be be considered exhaustive. As you research, you may come up with other ideas and keywords.
You can use AI to practice interviewing for a job. Enter details about yourself and/or the job for a better experience. Use the job description as part of your prompt. The AI will ask questions that a boss would likely ask, helping to prepare you for the real interview.
A potential promt could be:
I will be graduating from college in a few months and I am starting to apply for jobs in marketing.I would like to practice a job interview. You will be a friendly but serious HR manager interviewing me for the job. Here is a sample job posting you can use to help interview me: [paste a job description here]. You will ask me a question, I will give you and answer, then you can either ask a followup question or start a new question.
Tell the AI to pretend to be your boss and you are asking for a raise. Entering details about your job will result in better interactions. The AI will ask you questions that a boss would likely ask.