Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum with AI

Evaluate: Write a Rebuttal

Students craft a detailed rebuttal to the AI-generated argument, focusing on different aspects such as the scope, conclusions, and missing evidence.

Students create arguments using ChatGPT and identify any logical fallacies present in the generated content. Students provide a detailed explanation of how the identified logical fallacies occurred and suggest ways to prevent them.

Evaluate: ChatGPT’s Predictions and Extrapolations

Students generate predictions using ChatGPT and critically assess the output. The assignment emphasizes an analytical approach to evaluating hypothetical scenarios generated by ChatGPT. Students must go beyond simple fact-checking and use reasoned analysis to diagnose the plausibility of the predictions.

Evaluate: Soundness of the Argument

Students analyze how facts are assembled into an argument, focusing on the validity of the connective logic. They are encouraged to look beyond the individual facts and assess whether the conclusions drawn are logically supported by the premises.

Evaluate: Hallucinated Sources

Students verify the existence of quoted sources provided by ChatGPT, using the institution’s library website. This activity ensures that students learn to critically assess AI-generated content and confirm its authenticity.

Evaluate: Correctness

The assignment examines the inherent weaknesses of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, emphasizing the importance of not relying on them unquestioningly. It highlights how these models mimic speech without true understanding and can produce convincingly false information.

Search: Seminal Scholars, Studies, and Other Materials

The assignment teaches students to use ChatGPT to identify significant scholars, studies, and materials within a given field, providing a foundational understanding of important contributors and key texts in the subject area.

Search: Explanations for Wrong Answers

By using ChatGPT to identify and correct misconceptions, students can clarify their understanding of complex topics, ensuring that incorrect knowledge does not impede future learning and comprehension.

Search: Narrowing Search Results

The assignment teaches students to use quotation marks and Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to narrow down search results effectively, ensuring they receive precise information tailored to their specific needs.

Prompt Engineering Series

This series of activities works through strategies for prompt engineering, from basic choices to more sophisticated strategies. Use the activities one-by-one with students or point students to a specific strategy when they need to improve their prompt writing.

Prompt Engineering: New Chat

By requiring students to start a new chat for unrelated questions, the assignment demonstrates the value of resetting the chat history to obtain unbiased and “pure” responses, teaching them to manage context effectively in AI interactions.

Prompt Engineering: Length

The assignment teaches students to specify the desired length of ChatGPT responses, enabling them to receive information in various formats, from concise summaries to detailed essays, depending on their needs.

Prompt Engineering: Sophistication

The assignment encourages students to specify the level of sophistication in their prompts, allowing them to receive responses that match their desired depth and complexity, whether for beginner or advanced understanding.

Prompt Engineering: Specified Style

The assignment encourages students to engage creatively by asking ChatGPT to deliver explanations or summaries in the style of famous authors or artists, making learning more enjoyable and memorable.

Prompt Engineering: Tone

The assignment allows students to explore and understand different tones by having them generate responses in various styles, such as playful, sarcastic, or authoritative, helping them recognize how tone impacts communication.

Prompt Engineering: Context and Specific Requests

The assignment teaches students to use graduated prompts, starting with broad inquiries and progressively adding more details, helping them understand how specificity impacts the quality and accuracy of ChatGPT’s responses.

Prompt Engineering: Rephrase Prompts

By rephrasing prompts, students learn how different wording can elicit varied responses, leading to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the subject matter as they explore different angles and perspectives.

Prompt Engineering: Regenerate a Response

Students learn to generate and compare multiple responses from a single prompt, which helps them understand how different approaches and wordings can convey varying perspectives and nuances on the same topic.

Prompt Engineering: Conversation

The assignment introduces students to the technique of prompt chaining, teaching them how to build on previous prompts to extract more detailed and precise information, thereby enhancing their query formulation skills.

AI Classroom Activity: Machine Learning

The assignment provides students with practical experience in machine learning by engaging them in activities that involve training algorithms and analyzing data, making complex concepts more accessible through hands-on application.

AI Classroom Activity: Facial Recognition

Students gain practical knowledge of how facial recognition systems work, including the technical aspects of image processing and machine learning algorithms. The assignment emphasizes the importance of discussing the ethical implications of facial recognition technology, encouraging students to think critically about privacy, consent, and bias issues.