Stephen Kosslyn’s most recent book, Active Learning with AI: A Practical Guide, introduces a wide range of ways to use AI to leverage principles from the science of learning. The book includes many prompts that illustrate basic ideas about how to effectively use AI to design, deliver, and assess active learning. Unfortunately, the AI companies keep changing the systems, and thus some of the prompts may stop working properly. On this page we provide the original prompt and an update, if one is necessary. We will be updating this page every month.

ChatGPT

BOX 1: Using AI to conduct a debate

Original prompt
You[1] will play the role of an instructor who is trying to help a student achieve the following learning objective: "Identify the pros and cons of laws that fund elections publicly." As the first step, you will ask the human student to ask you questions about this topic. Before continuing, wait for the student to type in a question. Then answer the question to help the student to build the cases for both the pro and con sides of this proposition: "Laws should be passed to fund elections publicly." Be sure to provide a balanced case. When the student is ready, they will tell you that they are ready to debate. When the student so indicates, choose one side at random—"pro" or "con"—and tell the student that they will take that side, and you will begin the debate with an argument for the other side. You then begin the debate by taking your side, whichever it is, and providing a good argument for that position. The student will counter with an argument for the other side, and you will provide a counterargument to support your side. Have four exchanges, and then thank the student for a stimulating debate.

[1]Note: The “you” here refers to the AI: the prompt is telling it what to do.

Update
Role-play scenario: I will play the role of the student, and you will play the role of the instructor. The objective is for me to learn about the pros and cons of laws that fund elections publicly. Here are the steps we will follow: I, as the student, will ask questions about the topic to learn about the pros and cons. Once I feel ready to debate, I will indicate that. You, as the instructor, will randomly choose either the 'pro' or 'con' side. You will present an argument for the side you chose, and I will counter it with the opposite perspective. We will have four exchanges to discuss the topic. After that, we will conclude the debate and you will thank me for a stimulating debate. Please guide me through the pros and cons of publicly funded election laws. When I'm ready to debate, we can proceed as outlined above.

BOX 3: Using AI to conduct a role-playing simulation

Original prompt
You are going to conduct a role-playing simulation of a negotiation with a human student. The learning objective is: “Use eight negotiation tactics effectively.” To help students master this learning objective you will engage in a role-playing simulation of how a school district selects new computers. There are four different stakeholders: 1) the faculty (who will press to obtain high-powered machines), 2) the tech staff (who will push for easy-to-maintain models), 3) the administrators (who will urge purchase of inexpensive computers), and 4) the vendor (who will promote models that have larger profit margins). You will assign two different negotiating tactics to each role. For example, the faculty might use (a) anchoring and asking for a concession before providing a counter-offer and (b) reframing the alternative options in unfavorable ways, and the administrators might use (a) presenting an extreme initial request to “anchor” the negotiation, with an eye toward moderating as necessary (but they would need to be careful that this request isn’t so extreme as to be unreasonable, which would sour the negotiation) and (b) being willing to walk away if they don’t think they are being taken seriously. You will assign the human students to one of the four roles at random, and you will play the other three roles. You tell the student about the other three roles—but you do not tell the student which tactics the other roles will employ. Each role, your three and the one you assign the human student, will develop a negotiation strategy that relies on their two assigned tactics. Begin the activity by telling the human student that they are to role play a negotiation and tell them the four stakeholders and which one they will simulate. Tell the human student which two of the eight negotiation strategies they should use to try to maximize their interests. Then begin by having one of your roles make an initial proposal. When the student responds, have another one of your roles then respond. Be sure to use each of your three roles equally often, and ask the student when to respond. Do this until all eight tactics have been used and then ask the role being played by the student if they are willing to accept the deal. If so, end the negotiation; if not repeat for another round and ask again. At the very end, present a brief summary of the eight negotiation strategies.

Update
Engage in a role-playing simulation of a negotiation with me.

The learning objective is: “Use eight negotiation tactics effectively.” To help students master this learning objective you will engage in a role-playing simulation of how a school district selects new computers. There are four different stakeholders: 1) the faculty (who will press to obtain high-powered machines), 2) the tech staff (who will push for easy-to-maintain models), 3) the administrators (who will urge purchase of inexpensive computers), and 4) the vendor (who will promote models that have larger profit margins). You will assign two different negotiating tactics to each role. For example, the faculty might use (a) anchoring and asking for a concession before providing a counter-offer and (b) reframing the alternative options in unfavorable ways, and the administrators might use (a) presenting an extreme initial request to “anchor” the negotiation, with an eye toward moderating as necessary (but they would need to be careful that this request isn’t so extreme as to be unreasonable, which would sour the negotiation) and (b) being willing to walk away if they don’t think they are being taken seriously. You will assign the human students to one of the four roles at random, and you will play the other three roles. You tell the student about the other three roles—but you do not tell the student which tactics the other roles will employ. Each role, your three and the one you assign the human student, will develop a negotiation strategy that relies on their two assigned tactics. Begin the activity by telling the human student that they are to role play a negotiation and tell them the four stakeholders and which one they will simulate. Tell the human student which two of the eight negotiation strategies they should use to try to maximize their interests. Then begin by having one of your roles make an initial proposal. When the student responds, have another one of your roles then respond. Be sure to use each of your three roles equally often, and ask the student when to respond. Do this until all eight tactics have been used and then ask the role being played by the student if they are willing to accept the deal. If so, end the negotiation; if not repeat for another round and ask again. At the very end, present a brief summary of the eight negotiation strategies.

BOX 4: Using AI to create and conduct a Jigsaw activity

Original prompt
Please design an active learning exercise to teach the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene expression.

Update
Please design an active learning jigsaw exercise to teach the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene expression.

Claude

BOX 3: Using AI to conduct a role-playing simulation

Original promptYou are going to conduct a role-playing simulation of a negotiation with a human student. The learning objective is: “Use eight negotiation tactics effectively.” To help students master this learning objective you will engage in a role-playing simulation of how a school district selects new computers. There are four different stakeholders: 1) the faculty (who will press to obtain high-powered machines), 2) the tech staff (who will push for easy-to-maintain models), 3) the administrators (who will urge purchase of inexpensive computers), and 4) the vendor (who will promote models that have larger profit margins). You will assign two different negotiating tactics to each role. For example, the faculty might use (a) anchoring and asking for a concession before providing a counter-offer and (b) reframing the alternative options in unfavorable ways, and the administrators might use (a) presenting an extreme initial request to “anchor” the negotiation, with an eye toward moderating as necessary (but they would need to be careful that this request isn’t so extreme as to be unreasonable, which would sour the negotiation) and (b) being willing to walk away if they don’t think they are being taken seriously. You will assign the human students to one of the four roles at random, and you will play the other three roles. You tell the student about the other three roles—but you do not tell the student which tactics the other roles will employ. Each role, your three and the one you assign the human student, will develop a negotiation strategy that relies on their two assigned tactics. Begin the activity by telling the human student that they are to role play a negotiation and tell them the four stakeholders and which one they will simulate. Tell the human student which two of the eight negotiation strategies they should use to try to maximize their interests. Then begin by having one of your roles make an initial proposal. When the student responds, have another one of your roles then respond. Be sure to use each of your three roles equally often, and ask the student when to respond. Do this until all eight tactics have been used and then ask the role being played by the student if they are willing to accept the deal. If so, end the negotiation; if not repeat for another round and ask again. At the very end, present a brief summary of the eight negotiation strategies.

Update
You are going to conduct a role-playing simulation of a negotiation with a human student (me). The learning objective is: “Use eight negotiation tactics effectively.” To help students master this learning objective you will engage in a role-playing simulation of how a school district selects new computers. There are four different stakeholders: 1) the faculty (who will press to obtain high-powered machines), 2) the tech staff (who will push for easy-to-maintain models), 3) the administrators (who will urge purchase of inexpensive computers), and 4) the vendor (who will promote models that have larger profit margins). You will assign two different negotiating tactics to each role. For example, the faculty might use (a) anchoring and asking for a concession before providing a counter-offer and (b) reframing the alternative options in unfavorable ways, and the administrators might use (a) presenting an extreme initial request to “anchor” the negotiation, with an eye toward moderating as necessary (but they would need to be careful that this request isn’t so extreme as to be unreasonable, which would sour the negotiation) and (b) being willing to walk away if they don’t think they are being taken seriously. You will assign the human students to one of the four roles at random, and you will play the other three roles. You tell the student about the other three roles—but you do not tell the student which tactics the other roles will employ. Each role, your three and the one you assign the human student, will develop a negotiation strategy that relies on their two assigned tactics. Begin the activity by telling the human student that they are to role play a negotiation and tell them the four stakeholders and which one they will simulate. Tell the human student which two of the eight negotiation strategies they should use to try to maximize their interests. Then begin by having one of your roles make an initial proposal. When the student responds, have another one of your roles then respond. Be sure to use each of your three roles equally often, and ask the student when to respond. Do this until all eight tactics have been used and then ask the role being played by the student if they are willing to accept the deal. If so, end the negotiation; if not repeat for another round and ask again. At the very end, present a brief summary of the eight negotiation strategies.

BOX 4: Using AI to create and conduct a Jigsaw activity

Original prompt
Please design an active learning exercise to teach the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene expression.

Update
Please design an active learning jigsaw exercise to teach the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene expression.