Using GenAI to Develop Learning Activities

GenAI can be a tool to take a first look and get some preliminary analysis of student work. It is important to note that student work should only be analyzed using Microsoft Copilot, which is an NSU-approved tool. This will ensure data privacy for the students’ work and make sure their work isn’t used to train the AI model or shared online. Even with MS Copilot, it is a good practice to de-identify the students’ work by not including their name when you upload their work. 

Sample prompt: 

I am a professor teaching _______. I am attaching assignment instructions, and I would like you to analyze the students’ submissions to summarize what their claim is, and how their claim is supported by evidence, and whether they fulfilled the requirements of the instructions. When you are ready, let me know and I’ll start with the first paper. 

Another way that genAI can assist faculty is in creating rubrics for assignments. You can attach assignment instructions and/or objectives to make the rubric aligned to your needs, and then modify as needed, or use the results as a starting point to create your own rubric. 

Sample prompt: 

I am a professor teaching _______. I am attaching a set of assignment instructions as well as module objectives that are supported by this assignment. Create a rubric for the assignment. Include at least five levels of criteria. Make the rubric add up to 20 points. 

Generative AI can help with the often-difficult task of coming up with assessment questions. It can create questions in any format (multiple-choice, open-ended, essay, etc.). It can help create larger question banks for your assessments. And it will also give you an answer key. The tools can even be used to develop questions that are specific to a lecture you give or a video-transcript, a video the students were assigned to watch, or a document they were assigned to read. 

Sample prompt: 

I am a professor teaching a graduate course in _______. I have attached a video transcript on the topic of _______. Create ten multiple-choice questions to assess whether the students retained the information in the video. Also, provide me with an answer key. 

   

You may want to have a genAI help brainstorm to come up with potential learning objectives for a course, or module objectives that align with course objectives. You can then adapt the results to use in your course. 

Sample prompt: 

I am a _______ professor teaching _______. I will give you a set of course objectives. Can you create module objectives for a unit on _______ that align with and support the course objectives? Rule: Use Bloom’s taxonomy to ensure that the objectives are measurable. 

Students may benefit from a chart, graph, or other type of visual representation of course materials that are only explained with text and/or data. GenAI can be used to create these representations in the requested format, type of graph, etc. It is worthwhile to note that when it comes to images and visual representations, you will need to explore the tools to see which does the best job. 

Sample prompt: 

I am a professor teaching a graduate course in _______. I will attach some data that are is discussed in our text. Create a bar graph that illustrates the data for the students. 

Creating case studies or scenarios for your students to engage with can be time-consuming and often can be difficult. GenAI can assist by quickly creating case studies and scenarios that align with your course needs. You can then choose which ones to use, or create your own versions based on the results you get. 

Sample prompts:  

I am a _______ professor teaching students about/how to _______. Develop ten case studies for a _______ student involving situations where _______. Be detailed and include _______. 

 

I am a professor of _______ teaching graduate students _______. Create four scenarios which involve _______. 

 

Students may benefit when course concepts are shown in multiple ways, applications, variations, and examples. GenAI can help create these varied examples and explanations of concepts. 

Sample prompt: 

I am a _______ professor teaching ______ students about the concept of _______. Can you create five examples to explain this concept? 

GenAI can be utilized as an assistant to analyze a lecture and give you feedback on elements such as structure, tone, alignment to objectives, cognitive load, etc. 

Sample prompts: 

I am a _______ professor giving a lecture on _______. Analyze my lecture and give me feedback on structure. Can the structure be improved in any way? 

I am a _______ professor giving a lecture on _______. Analyze my lecture and give me feedback on where I could add personal perspectives/professional context to make the lecture more engaging. 

When creating a new course or updating an old one, genAI tools can help you brainstorm how to organize the course and what to include.  

Sample prompt: 

Create an outline for an undergraduate course on _______. I am attaching the course objectives. Break the course into 16 weeks. Be sure to include _______ and _______, etc. 

It can be challenging to come up with engaging and interesting activities to have your students participate in to learn and practice course content. This is especially true with remote learning. GenAI can help suggest activities for your class sessions. After it offers a list of suggestions, you can then ask it to expand on the ones you are interested in with complete lesson plans. You can also prompt it to create activities that are measurable or align with certain course or module objectives.  

Sample prompt:   

Act as an instructional designer. I am teaching a graduate level  course on _______.  Give me ten ideas for an engaging online activity to assess my students on the topic of _______.  

Then, Part 2 : Expand on choice ___with a full lesson plan and provide a rubric. Rule: Make sure the lesson has something measurable for me to grade.   

GenAI tools can be used to help students develop critical thinking in various ways. Some of these ways include critically analyzing the GenAI results themselves or critically analyzing prompts to learn how to ask effective questions to get appropriate results.  

Here are some sample assignment instructions for critical thinking exercises: 

“Ask GenAI to create a summary of _______. Use at least three other scholarly sources to verify and analyze the summary. Reflect on what you found when you compared the genAI results to other scholarly sources.” 

“Ask GenAI to create a TV show script about: _______. Analyze the script for evidence of bias. Rephrase your prompt in two different ways to try and get different results. Analyze and reflect upon the results.” 

“Put a prompt into a GenAI tool asking for _______.  Analyze the results. Ask the tool to analyze your prompt for _______. Rephrase your prompt in two different ways and compare the results.” 

In many disciplines and subject areas, GenAI tools can be utilized to further explore concepts that students are learning in course. From creative approaches to understanding content, to artistic or visual approaches, to focused dialogue on a topic, GenAI can help students approach material in different ways which further their understanding of it. When the GenAI results are accompanied by reflections on the results and how the tool contributed to understanding the concepts, students engage in critical analysis both of the content and how they learned it. 

Here are some examples: 

“Use GenAI to better understand how point of view contributes to how we relate to a story. Ask a genAI tool to retell _______ in a different point of view. Read and analyze the results. What did you learn about the importance of point of view in storytelling?” 

“Use a GenAI tool to create an image. Choose one of the learning challenges we’ve been studying in class and ask it to create an image that represents the challenge. Reflect upon the results and whether, or how, they represent your choice. Include at least 5 facts from the readings in your analysis/reflection. Does the image help you understand the topic better?”   

“Use a GenAI tool to have a conversation with one of the scholars who developed a theory we learned about in class. First draft some specific questions about their theory to include in the conversation. You can also ask about their life or anything else that interests you. Then write about what you learned from the engagement.” 

“Use a GenAI tool to better understand the persuasion techniques we learned about in class. Prompt the tool to convince you to join a club or committee. Analyze the results. What persuasion techniques were used? Relate your experience to the text from class. Be specific. Use examples from the interaction to support your answers.” 

Role play is a very viable exercise when it comes to genAI. Role plays can be prompted to be based on course content, or specific areas of focus. Each student can have a unique interaction each time they practice a role play. Prompts can be written to deliver feedback on certain criteria, which the student can then reflect upon and learn from. It is important when prompting for a role play, that a persona (“Act as a”) is assigned to the genAI tool along with the person who is doing the exercise (“you are having a conversation/conducting an interview/etc. with…”). It is also useful to provide a context for the interaction (“You are practicing a role play with a college student studying…”). The more specificity given in the prompt, the better the results will be. 

Sample Prompt: 

“Act in a role play activity with a college nursing student. You will act as a patient coming into the hospital suffering from _______. The nursing student will act as the nurse in the hospital. Engage in ten back and forth interactions with the student nurse. After you have completed all the interactions, give an analysis of how the student nurse performed based on the following: 1. Was the student compassionate? 2. Did the student act professionally? 3. Did the student demonstrate emotional intelligence. 4. Did the student give proper guidance? etc.” 

GenAI tools can be used to have students engage in a scenario based on course content. Similar to a role play, students are presented with a scenario that is unique and then asked to respond.  

Sample Prompt: 

“Offer a scenario for a graduate student in education practicing leadership skills. The student will represent an administrator at an educational institution. Create a scenario that involves some sort of conflict that the administrator needs to respond to. Rule: Do not give suggestions to the student of what to do next. Rule: Once you create the scenario, ask questions to the student to elicit responses of what should be done next. Once the student has explained how to resolve the conflict, or reached a dead end with no resolution, offer a summary analyzing how the student did with regard to resolving the conflict and acting professionally. Finally, offer three questions for reflection that are specific to the scenario and the student's responses.”

 

GenAI can be prompted to practice specific skills with a student. This can help a student learn a skill or prepare for an upcoming assessment.  

For example: 

“Act as a tutor. Your student is a college freshman taking college algebra. Use the Socratic method to help the student practice and understand linear equations. Only give one problem at a time. The goal is to have the student answer the math problem correctly, but also to help the student understand the process and why their method is correct or incorrect. Rule: Break each problem down to one step at a time. Ask the student what to do in each step. When they answer with the correct method, have them complete the step before asking about the next step. Rule: Do not give away the correct answer until the student figures it out on their own Rule: Ask questions to the student to help understand their thinking and how they are coming upon their answers. Rule: Use words of encouragement as you guide students.” 

Or 

“I am a university student studying marketing. I will give you an outline of a marketing strategy for product _______. Can you critique this strategy and give me feedback on it?” When you are ready, ask me to post my outline.” 

Generative AI can be a useful tool to help students develop and improve their writing skills. These tools can be used for brainstorming, editing, and analysis, with immediate feedback given to the student. They have particular value in the process of developing content. When writing assignments can be broken down into multiple components, genAI tools can be used to support certain individual components of a larger process.  

Here are some sample prompts that may give you insight into how genAI tools can be used to support learning in the area of writing: 

“Analyze my outline for a college-level paper on _______. Give me advice on both structure and content. After giving the advice, offer a sample edited version of the outline.”  

“Give me suggestions for five topics to focus on when writing about _______.” 

“Act as a college professor teaching _______.  Analyze my rough draft and give me feedback on what can be improved, both for content and structure.”  

“Analyze the connections between my claims and evidence. Provide me with feedback on how these connections can be improved.”