Enhancing My AI Prompt Composition in 4 Steps
In the realm of AI, understanding the art of crafting effective prompts is becoming increasingly important in education. This approach can save time, mentor students in AI usage, and help generate responses that are relevant, accurate, and useful.
The CRE Framework
The CRE Framework, which stands for Clarity, Role, and Examples, is a valuable tool in AI prompt writing.
- Clarity: Write prompts that are specific, concise, and free of ambiguity. Avoid unnecessary words and jargon unless defined. This helps the AI understand the task precisely.
- Role: Assign the AI a specific persona or perspective, such as "act as a history professor", to guide its style and content.
- Examples: Provide sample inputs or outputs to illustrate the expected format or style, giving the AI clearer guidance.
Experimentation and Iteration
Start with a clear and specific question or task. Break down complex tasks into smaller parts. If the AI’s first response is unsatisfactory, refine your prompt by clarifying, adjusting instructions, or adding more context. Use feedback loops where you ask the AI to revise or explain its answers to improve precision and relevance. Adjust parameters such as response length or style to better fit educational needs.
Finding and Adapting Useful Prompts from Others
Explore prompt libraries and examples shared by educators or AI communities to find effective starting points. Analyse how other prompts are structured using frameworks like ACCENT (Alignment, Clarity, etc.) or CRE. Adapt and customise these prompts to your specific educational context and learning goals.
Additional Best Practices
- Provide context about the educational project, audience, or subject matter.
- Specify output details such as tone, length, and format.
- Use precise, measurable instructions rather than vague qualifiers.
The Power of Iteration
Embracing an iterative approach to prompt writing is crucial: if a prompt doesn't work at first, it should be adjusted and tweaked to improve the outputs. The author's perspective changed after interviewing Graham Clay, an AI-in-education expert, who advised starting with the assumption that the problem lies with the prompt, not the AI model.
Resources for Learning
The AI For Education website offers prompt libraries based on common education needs, including fundraising prompts and ones built around Bloom's Taxonomy. The author recently took a free course focused on using ChatGPT for education, developed in partnership between Common Sense Media and OpenAI.
A Suggested Prompt
A suggested prompt for creating a rubric that was found helpful: "You are an expert teacher and curriculum writer, skilled in creating assessments and evaluating student work. Your task is to create a rubric for my [GRADE LEVEL AND SUBJECT] class studying [TOPIC]. My students are completing [ASSIGNMENT TITLE], in which they [ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION]. Format the rubric as a chart and include a 5-point scale."
By following these strategies, educators can enhance prompt quality, helping AI generate responses that are relevant, accurate, and useful in educational settings.
- The CRE Framework, useful in AI prompt writing, emphasizes Clarity by writing precise, concise prompts to help AI understand tasks accurately.
- In the process of refining AI's responses, educators can iterate by analyzing feedback, adjusting prompts, and incorporating a loop for AI revisions or explanations.
- Finding effective starting points can be achieved by exploring prompt libraries, analyzing successfully structured prompts like ACCENT or CRE, and adapting them to specific educational settings.
- Best practices in AI-driven education include providing context about the project, audience, or subject matter, specifying output details like tone, length, and format, and using precise, measurable instructions.
- By employing these strategies and adopting an iterative approach, educators can utilize AI more effectively in online education and education-and-self development, helping students learn in a more efficient and engaging manner.
