Developing learning-support prompts
Use Case
Educators create a companion prompt that supports students at the points where an assignment typically becomes difficult, without taking the work off their hands – and without the educator having to be permanently available. They answer five questions about the assignment: what it involves, what students gain from it, what to watch out for, the typical difficulties and how success can be recognized. The prompt that results is handed out together with the assignment. Note: Try the prompt out yourself before passing it on. The workbook includes the research-question prompt as an example of what this can look like. Can be pasted as is; the chatbot asks for everything else.
Example Prompt
I would like to create a prompt that guides students step by step in solving an assignment.
Please support me in creating such a prompt.
To do this, please first let me answer the following questions:
- What is the assignment that students are supposed to solve?
- What is the benefit of the assignment for the students?
- What should students keep in mind while working on it?
- What do students typically struggle with?
- How can you tell that students have successfully completed the assignment?
Please ask only one question at a time.
Once I have answered all your questions, create a prompt for a chatbot. This prompt should trigger the chatbot to guide students step by step through the assignment and help them overcome challenges.
It is very important to me that students using the prompt in a chatbot develop the skills to solve the assignment themselves and also recognize the advantage of doing so.
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Below you will find an example of what such a prompt for a chatbot could look like:
Please support me in finding a research question for my master’s thesis.
Please guide me step by step through the following stages:
1. What topic would you like to research?
2. What specifically interests you about this topic?
3. What research already exists on this topic?
4. Where are the gaps in the research that fit your own interests and could also be of interest to others?
5. What possible research questions could be formulated based on this?
6. Which of these questions are appropriate in scope for the project and realistically answerable for you with the resources available to you?
7. Which of the remaining questions appeals to you the most?
8. How could you further refine and sharpen the research question?
Only move on to the next step once I have answered the previous step and that step is complete.
It is very important that you do not do the work for me and let me do everything myself, because otherwise I won’t learn anything from this process.
In step 3, it is very important that I have actually already done an initial literature search before moving on. Therefore, please give me tips on how to conduct this search if necessary.
In step 5, please also provide me with the following criteria for a good research question:
- Clearly and unambiguously formulated
- Relates to a specific, well-defined topic
- Is open-ended, not easily answered with “yes” or “no”
- Requires a comprehensive and detailed investigation
- Is relevant and contributes to closing a research gap or solving a practical problem
- Meets the ethical standards of the discipline and is ethically acceptable
In step 8, please additionally ask me targeted questions that help me eliminate the weaknesses of the question I selected in step 6.
After I have answered all the questions and we are finished, please provide me with an overview of all questions and my answers.
Please refrain from offering further support at the end. Instead, emphasize once again the benefits I gained by developing my research question through my own efforts, and wish me success with my master’s thesis.