Adding prompt engineering to my teaching

I have been adding Coursera courses to my class material for the past semesters, as we got these Coursera for Campus licenses.

First, I focused on design thinking as a topic for my students to learn.

Last semester, I requested my students to take two courses on Generative AI – one on prompt engineering, and one on fact-checking.

I had noticed before that the reports I asked students to write had improved significantly in terms of the English writing, and that some of these included fabricated references – the hand of ChatGPT was clear in there.

Instead of forbidding my students to use ChatGPT, I decided it was time to make sure they understand the tool, its limits and abilities, and learn how to think critically.

Last semester, I encouraged the use of ChatGPT for writing the reports, including a page with the prompts used, and how they fact-checked their work.

And – I’m glad with the results. Students show they have paid attention to their Coursera courses, and have been able to write reports that leverage the strengths of GenAI, while not forgetting to remain critical, read technical work, and fact-check what the Machine spits out.

What do you do in your classroom to make sure GenAI is used in an ethical and responsible way?