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Academic Excellence

Practice! (S)

The best way to learn what Gen AI is capable of, and where it falls short, is by experimenting with the tools.  For all of these practice examples be reminded that you can only use generative AI in your courses or for assessments with the explicit permission of the course instructor. 

Using Gen AI tools begins with a “prompt”. This is the information you give to the tool to get it to generate what you want. Prompting is mostly about experience – it takes practice to learn what works well and what doesn’t work.  

Ethan Mollick differentiates two paths to prompting: conversational prompting and structured prompting. 

With conversational prompting, talk to the AI to ask for what you want or might need and see what happens. For most people, today, a conversational approach is enough to help you with your work. 

For some uses, at least for now, a more formal structured approach has value. Structured prompting is about getting the AI tool to do a single task well in a way that is repeatable and adaptable. It usually takes experimentation and effort to make a prompt work somewhat consistently. 

Structured prompts allow you to take what you learned and apply it to different contexts. Prompt libraries are becoming more common as a way of sharing structured prompts that can be adapted or experimented with. 

 Regardless of which approach you use, it’s good practice to tell the tool:

  • Who it is: this gives the AI the right context to start from (e.g., you’re a second year student studying Geography) 
  • Context for its task: the more context you give it, the more effective it can be (e.g., include points about information you want it to include)
  • What you want it to do including the format of the response, or the number of examples)
  • What you don’t want it to do (if relevant)
  • Examples or steps: this helps it learn what you want and helps it think step-by-step, which means it will do a better job.
  • End with a question like “ask me 5 questions before you begin to better help you complete this task” or “what else do you need to know before you start” for even further clarification of the task  

Learning how to prompt is just part of the equation – push back and interact with AI to improve the response (e.g., ask to expand on a particular point, add an additional point, or change an example). Ultimately, AI is just giving suggestions for us to build upon. We can give feedback to make the response better, take and adapt or combine ideas, or discard what doesn’t work. This is where you use your own knowledge to evaluate and improve the result and untap the real potential of using AI. 

Information Box Group

Want to learn more about prompting? Check out these resources:

 

Using Generative AI for a Learning Task

Choose one of the prompts below  to try it out yourself. Or you can create your own prompt for a specific task you’d like to complete. You can sign into Copilot with your McMaster credentials or use another GenAI tool of your choice.

Your task is to summarize this journal article in a straightforward and clear way. Incorporate the main ideas and key findings. Do not include external information. Do not exceed two pages and format the summary using headings and bullet points. Bold potential areas that may need expanded information. Do not summarize using the information in the abstract. [attach article]

Your task is to draft a search strategy for a research question: [INSERT QUESTION – e.g. In patients with lateral elbow pain, is surgery effective in improving pain and function?] Identify synonyms, related terms, and subject headings for each concept so that I can find relevant articles to cite in my essay for my second-year undergraduate course. Look at PubMed.  

Learn about what is a subject heading or keyword.

Your task is to identify five references that address how machine learning can aid enhancing a city’s walkability. Include journal articles published in the last five years and are in English. 

Learn more about Scite.ai 

Your task is to use the following material to create multiple choice practice questions for my upcoming fourth-year undergraduate examination. Show the answer and explain it after I answered each question.  

 

Reflecting on your experience

Once you’ve had a chance to play around with the prompts and refine your responses, consider the following questions: 

  • Did the generative AI tool effectively generate the content I needed in terms of quality and relevance? 
  • Was the generated content easily customizable to suit my specific needs and preferences? 
  • How did the use of the tool impact the time required compared to traditional methods? 
  • What questions or concerns do I have about using Gen AI in this way? 

References

Anthropic. (2024). Prompt Library. https://docs.anthropic.com/en/prompt-library/library  

FeeDough. (2024). The Free AI Prompt Generator. https://www.feedough.com/ai-prompt-generator/  

Mollick, E. (2023h, November 1). Working with AI: Two paths to prompting. One Useful Thing. https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/working-with-ai-two-paths-to-prompting?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1180644&post_id=138388046&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2sc7cm&utm_medium=email 

Schuloff, S., Khan, A., & Yanni, F.  Learn Prompting: Your Guide to Communicating with AI. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://learnprompting.org/ 

Schulz, S. (2024, February 16). What is a Prompt Library? And Why All Organizations Need One. Orpical Group. https://orpical.com/what-is-a-prompt-library/ 

Wharton School. (2023c, August 2). Practical AI for Instructors and Students Part 3: Prompting AI [Video file]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbGKfAPlZVA