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Artificial Intelligence (AI in Academics)

Prompts - it's what you type into the chat box.

Always verify the information it gives you.

Think of AI as your personal assistant. AI tools need very specific instructions, and they need you to verify the information.

Verification Tools:

  • Library Resources - Use the collection of print & electronic scholarly resources available. 
  • Search online with tools other than AI to locate websites with information on your topic.
  • Review the response with your instructors or classmates.

ChatGPT and other AI tools sometimes makes things up.

That's because it's designed to write in a way that sounds like human writing. It's not designed to know facts.

Suggestions to avoid false responses:

Well-written, detailed prompt enables the AI to give you meaningful and useful results.

** Most AI tools limit the number of responses or may charge you per response. Using good prompts may save time & money.

 

Prompt Basics (Learn more by reviewing the frameworks below.)

  • Tell the AI tool what you "do" or "don't" want in the response. Be specific.
  • Provide examples
  • Include audience & tone
  • Correct any mistakes and give feedback through conversation with the tool. 

Tips for writing effective prompts

  • Give it some context or a role to play.

  • Give it very detailed instructions, including how you would like the results formatted.

  • Keep conversing and asking for changes. Ask it to revise the answer in various ways.

Examples

  1. A role could be, "Act as an expert in [fill in the blank]." 
    Act as an expert community organizer.
    Act as a high school biology teacher.
    Act as a comedian.
     

  2. Example prompt:
    Act as an expert academic librarian. I’m writing a research paper for Sociology and I need help coming up with a topic. I’m interested in topics related to climate change. Please give me a list of 10 topic ideas related to climate change.
     

  3. Example of changes: (keep conversing until you get something useful)
    Now give me some sub-topics or research questions for [one of those topics]. And give me a list of keywords and phrases I can use to search for that topic in library databases and Google Scholar.
     

    Or...

    I didn't like any of those topics. Please give me 10 more.

Attribution:

Portions of this guide were taken or adapted from the Student Guide to Chat GPT created by the University of Arizona Libraries, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” 

  • Sometimes it gets confused if you change topics in the middle of a conversation. When you want to change the subject, start a new chat.

  • It will remember what you've said in the course of a conversation, so you don't have to repeat everything again. Just continue like you're talking a fellow student.

  • Don't ask ChatGPT (free version) for a list of sources. It will often make them up. Instead use library search, library databases, or Google Scholar.

  • Choose an output format. In addition to paragraphs it can give you a table, a bulleted list, ascii art, multiple choice quiz questions, emojis, computer code, and more.

  • Remember, don't enter any personal, private data because the company providing the tool may use your input to help improve the model.

Prompt Design Tools

 

PROMPT Design Framework by Sarah Hartman-Caverly, Librarian Penn State Berks

  • Persona - assign a role
  • Requirements - define parameters for output 
  • Organization - describe the structure of the output
  • Medium - describe the format of the output
  • Purpose - identify the rhetorical purpse and intended audience
  • Tone - specify the tone of output (ex: academic)

 

CLEAR Framework by Leo S. Lo, Dean of the College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences, University of New Mexico

  • Concise - Is there superfluous language?
  • Logical - Is the prompt structured logically like instructions should be?
  • Explicit - Is the prompt explicit enough about what to produce and in what format?
  • Adaptive - Do I need to adapt/change the prompt to get what I need?
  • Reflective - Is this what I needed? Is the information provided accurate and credible?
Lo, Leo S. "The CLEAR path: A framework for enhancing information literacy through prompt engineering." Journal of Academic Librarianship, vol. 49, no. 4, July 2023, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720.