Lew Ludwig - AI Hacks for Educators

AI Hacks for Educators

Practical Tips to Save Time by Using GenAI

Yee, Kevin, Laurie Uttich, Eric Main, and Elizabeth Giltner. AI Hacks for Educators. FCTL Press, 2024. Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0.

31. Summarize Commentary on Student Evaluations

7. Revise Existing Assignment Prompts to Nudge Student Success

10. Generate Test Questions

11. Generate GRE-Style Test Questions

12. Develop Rubrics

19. Create Practice Quizzes, Worksheets, and Problem Sets

22. Create Visual Representations of Data

23. Develop Modules for Remediation or Study Skills

31. Summarize Commentary on Student Evaluations

Prompt: You are a faculty member who taught three sections of introductory chemistry during the last semester. Your students left comments about the course and your teaching, and you want to know what students liked and did not like about the course and how you taught the material based on the attached file. Use the uploaded file to learn the following: a) what did students like about the course; b) what did students not like about the course; c) what suggestions did students give for improving the course; d) what did students like about your teaching; e) what did students not like about your teaching; f) what suggestions did students give for improving your teaching. Report your findings in a one-paragraph summary for each of the six categories (a-f). Finally, generate three ideas for how to improve the course and/or your teaching.

Note: This type of prompt can be adapted for various open-ended survey questions similar to those used in our pre-survey. Also great for summarizing midterm course evals.

7. Revise Existing Assignment Prompts to Nudge Student Success

Prompt: Let’s start a role play. You will portray an instructor in Interdisciplinary Studies about to begin a course teaching students to use ARC GIS software. You’re aware that some students in the past have struggled with the major assignments. Adjust and lengthen the assignment prompt that is pasted below in such a way that students will have a clearer understanding of how to proceed. Begin by explaining the rationale for giving the assignment (what skills does this reinforce?), and make sure you explain both how it will be graded in terms of specific rubric elements, and what steps students should take to complete the assignment successfully. Include details about what a highscoring paper would look like.

Tip: Discover the benefits of clear and purposeful teaching by exploring the TILT Transparency in Learning and Teaching framework, which includes example assignments in calculus and algebra .

10. Generate Test Questions

Prompt: You are a physics instructor teaching first-year college Physics. You’ve had evidence before that tests from previous years are in the student population, so you want all-new tests. Create ten multiple-choice questions on the subject of Vectors, Scalars, and Coordinate Systems. The first five should be gauging Knowledge or Comprehension on Bloom’s Taxonomy, while the last five should test Application. Each question should have a relatively short stem, and four possible answers. The three distractors should be realistic options that an uninformed student might select.

Tip: Modify this prompt to revise existing questions or to create two versions of the same test for students in different sections or those who may be absent.

11. Generate GRE-Style Test Questions

Prompt: You are a physics instructor teaching first-year college Physics. You’ve had evidence before that tests from previous years are in the student population, so you want all-new tests. Create five multiple-choice questions on the subject of Vectors, Scalars, and Coordinate Systems. All five of these questions should test Analysis or Evaluation on Bloom’s Taxonomy. The questions should be preceded by a text and/or graphic to read and interpret, and all five questions will depend on understanding the reading and graphic. The three distractors should be realistic options that an uninformed student might select.

Note: GRE questions are known to measure critical thinking.

12. Develop Rubrics

Prompt: Roleplay as an instructor who is teaching future K-12 educators. You need to create a rubric for a new assignment you are trying out, in which preservice teachers will give a mock math lesson about multiplying fractions to fellow undergrads portraying middle schoolers. Write a rubric in table format that gives up to ten points each in these categories: completeness, accuracy, interactivity, and classroom management. Provide detailed descriptions of how each level of accomplishment looks for each category, with the levels including advanced (9-10 points), medium (7-8 points), and developing (0-6 points).

Tip: Develop rubrics that clearly delineate the distinctions between an A-level response and a C-level response. Especially useful in proof-based courses.

19. Create Practice Quizzes, Worksheets, and Problem Sets

You are an experienced instructor in civil engineering, looking for ways to put additional word problems in front of students since you know from experience how valuable that extra practice can be. Your years of teaching have convinced you that few students will do optional problems so that you will configure these problems as required daily quizzes. Create 20-word problems to prepare students for a chapter test on hydraulics and hydrology. Half of the problems should be multiple-choice, while the other half should be open-ended. In all cases, provide a mix of knowledge, comprehension, and application questions. Provide the correct answer for each in parentheses after each question.

Tip: Use to create a variety of limit questions where students need to decide the algebraic technique needed: factoring, expanding. conjugate, or common denominator.

22. Create Visual Representations of Data

As a professor conducting in-depth research and publishing its results, your task is to generate a detailed visual representation of the data supplied below. The output should be clear, concise, suitable for academic journals, and helpful in explaining the results of this study. To accomplish that, please follow this process: • Step One: Carefully analyze the research data to determine the most suitable type of visual representation. • Step Two: Structure the data logically, ensuring all key points and findings are highlighted. • Step Three: Add necessary titles, labels, annotations, and legends to make the visual easy to understand. • Step Four: Ensure the layout is clean and avoids clutter, maintaining academic standards. If you have questions on any step, ask for clarification before proceeding.

Note: This one requires you to upload a data set. Be mindful of gen AI privacy settings.

23. Develop Modules for Remediation or Study Skills

Prompt: You’re an instructor in your third year of teaching college. Next semester you’ll be teaching Calculus-1 for the second time, and you know from last year that many students lacked the math preparation for the course. Prepare an online module for the LMS that will review the basics from algebra and pre-calculus that students will use in Calc-1. Also include some foundational arithmetic such as order of operations. The basics should come in a numbered list, each with a label, a short definition, and an example. The module should be long enough that it would take 45 minutes for a student to review carefully. Also create 30 application-level multiple-choice questions to serve as a post-module quiz.

Comment: One explicitly for math educators!