AI Tools for Ethical Learning

How you give AI your task will dramatically impact the results you get. The task is called prompt engineering, and you can find many tip sheets on writing a good prompt.

For academic purposes, we suggest this prompt building strategy.

1. Assign a Role - Who should the AI be when responding to our question?
2. Define the Task - What do we need the AI to do for us?
3. List Requirements - What guidelines should the AI follow?
4. Add Context - What information will help the AI understand the task?
5. Converse - How can you follow-up with the AI's response to guide it toward your desired result?

Practice Prompt Building!

Our students wrote prompts for these scenarios if you want to give it a try

Scenario 1:

You are struggling to understand the concept of rational functions in your college algebra course. You’re unsure of how to graph them and find the asymptotes. 

Scenario 2:

You are assigned a text to analyze for your history class: President John F. Kennedy Jr.'s address during the Cuban missile crisis. The text discusses an event with varying viewpoints, and you need help understanding those perspectives. 

Scenario 3:

You have been instructed to write a research paper on a topic that interests you. You were told that you will need an introduction, 3 main points, and a conclusion.

Test Those Prompts

Fun things to try:

• Use the same prompt in different generative AI tools and compare the results.
• Pick a tool to prompt. Wait a day, and ask the exact same question again. Compare the results.
• Ask how many r's are in the word strawberry.