Empowering Social Sciences Educators on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

Tips for prompt writing & examples

To obtain meaningful and accurate responses from AI, consider the following topics: 

  • Avoid vague or broad prompts that can yield unfocused responses. Specify the task, audience, and context.
  • State explicitly what role you want AI to take (e.g. tutor, policy analyst, editor).
  • Indicate the desired length, tone, or structure of the response (e.g. bullet points, formal tone, 300 words).
  • Provide background information, key definitions, or relevant course readings to help AI align with your objectives.
  • Encourage AI to support claims with examples or references to scholarly literature where appropriate.
  • Start with a draft prompt, review AI output, and adjust for clarity and relevance.

📚 Lecture Planning

Prompt:
“Act as a teaching assistant. Create a lecture outline on ‘The Role of Social Movements in Democratization,’ aimed at second-year political science students. Include learning objectives, key points, and three recommended readings.”

Why it works:
It specifies the role (teaching assistant), audience (second-year students), format (lecture outline), and supporting materials (recommended readings).

✍️ Assignment Support

Prompt:
“Draft a model answer to the following essay question: ‘Discuss the main arguments for and against populism as a challenge to liberal democracy. Use examples from Europe and Latin America.’ Limit the answer to 500 words and use an academic tone.”

Why it works:
It clarifies the task, specifies word count and tone, and provides geographical scope for examples.

🧩 Discussion Facilitation

Prompt:
“Generate three thought-provoking discussion questions on the impact of AI on privacy rights, suitable for a graduate seminar in political theory. Include a brief explanation for each question.”

Why it works:
It’s specific about the number of questions, the topic, and the educational context.

🔍 Feedback Assistance

Prompt:
“Provide constructive feedback on the following student essay introduction, focusing on clarity of thesis, relevance of examples, and academic tone. Do not assign a grade.” [Paste introduction]

Why it works:
It defines the focus areas for feedback and explicitly states to avoid grading.

🌐 Resources for Further Learning

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