I just created my first assignment requiring my history students to use AI. It is a paper prep assignment for the Reacting to the Past – Constitutional Convention game that requires students to use AI to help generate the opening parts of their papers. What I’m hoping to achieve is to have students learn how to create useful and good prompts and how to rework those prompts to achieve their objectives.
This is what the current assignment asks them to do:
- Locate the Paper 1 topic on your role sheet. In the space below write 2-3 sentences about the topic your Paper 1 is supposed to address.
- Initial Prompt Creation: In the space below write an initial prompt for an AI model to create an essay on your first paper topic.
- AI Model: Input the initial prompt into one or more of the available AI models (Bing Chat, Claude 2, ChatGPT). Which model did the best job, or did you end up using to complete the rest of the assignment?
- AI Output: Post below the first two paragraphs of the essay generated by the AI model.
- Prompt Reworking: Based on the AI’s response, rework the initial prompt four times, aiming to improve clarity, specificity, and persuasiveness. Post below each reworked prompt that was used along with the first two paragraphs of the essay it generated.
- Upload: When done upload this completed to sheet to Canvas.
- Print: You may want to bring a printed copy of this sheet to class, where we will discuss, analyze, and reflect on the AI’s output.
What is really cool is that I made AI help me created the assignment. You can see the prompts I used, and the output I got back.
I completed the assignment myself and will share it with the students when we discuss their results in class and I ask them to reflect on the process.
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