ChatGPT and generative AI: 25 applications in teaching and assessment

Everyone knows generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT has extensive potential uses in higher education. But how does this apply to your own academic and instructional work? Following on from our previous guide, “An introduction to prompting generative AI like ChatGPT for teaching and learning”, here are 25 examples of prompts to show how generative AI could be used within assessment, curriculum development and teaching.

Where we refer to specific pieces of work or materials, such as “this essay”, “this learning resource” or “this image” and so on, we used content created by ChatGPT itself in order to generate example responses – but the wording is designed to enable you to input your own materials as wanted.

1. Mark student essays: Function as an Australian university academic, teaching assessment to pre-service teachers and mark this essay. Identify and provide solutions for grammatical and syntax errors. 

2. Develop a rubric: Develop a marking rubric for an oral presentation for an introduction to tort law. Include criteria for each section. Include weighted percentages and what proficiency is needed at the pass, credit, distinction and high distinction. 

3. Develop multiple-choice questions based on an article: Function as a teacher and write me 10 multiple-choice questions relating to this learning resource from this week. Make some questions more difficult than others. Include one with the response being “none of the above” and another “all of the above”. Ensure it is written with higher-order thinking in mind.

4. Develop a curriculum: As a teacher, write me a complete curriculum for first-year marketing. Examine, if possible, other marketing curricula. Outline the main learning outcomes for each week. Develop a 12-week syllabus. Ensure one week covers ethics and sustainability.

5. Generate short-form (short answer) quiz questions and test questions: Can you generate quizzes and test questions on digital learning design? Include simple, medium and tough questions. Ensure these are not multiple-choice questions. One answer is correct. Provide tailored solutions for each answer.

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6. Generate discussion prompts: Can you generate discussion prompts for group work on futures trading using bots? Include the advantages and disadvantages of leveraged futures trading for students. Include 10 reflective exercises for the class.

7. Assist with weekly creative and critical reflective questions: Can you assist me in developing a set of reflective questions on international human resource management? Include weekly readings, reflections and in-class exercises to develop these. Set weekly support and dot points in creative and critical reflection and how to write in the first person.

8. Generate case studies: Design four real-world case studies on supply and demand for my first-year microeconomics class. Include answers to the supply-and-demand problem. Include a lesson plan associated with the case studies for an online class. Include case studies that students can connect to in their real life. Outline learning outcomes for the class and place them in front of each case study. 

9. Provide review material for exams or supplementary exams: Generate alternative exam questions for this supplementary exam on quantitative methods based on these initial questions. Make the questions similar in complexity and cognitive load. Use different numbers.

10. Create video lessons: Act as a learning designer and walk me through the steps I need to create an effective and engaging lecture video. Now act as a first-year teacher in nursing and help me develop a two-minute video on drug calculations. Use synonyms or acronyms that students can remember. Develop it for a lightboard instruction.

11. Explain visual aids: Can you write alt text for this image? Be precise and describe the key elements and relationships. Explain the story or narrative depicted in the image. Keep the word count to 100 words.

12. Assist with lesson planning: Assist me in creating five lesson plans for art history. Include scenario-based learning. Include one case study. Include one in-class group work experience for each lesson. Pitch for a second-year university audience.

13. Develop synchronous polling: Can you develop five synchronous polling questions to test students’ comprehension of the subject prompt added above? Now place the output in code that can be added to Zoom or Teams. Make the questions relatively easy and use the learning outcomes from last week to start the class. (Note: you can copy and paste the code into your announcements.)

14. 100 applications: Not including this list of 99 applications, now make an additional 100 applications of generative AI for teaching and learning.

15. Make better decisions: Using a decision tree matrix and a cost-benefit analysis provides a hypothetical example of how generative AI can help teachers make better decisions.

16. Spark a debate: Can you respond to the following question/issues/topic on first-year student needs from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and affirmative action? Be critical and provide answers for and against. Ensure to include supporting examples for class debate. 

17. Create exemplars for assessment tasks: Offer suggestions that can function as an exemplar on how to write an effective introduction in an essay. Also, how to do an effective abstract.

18. Assessment ideas using ChatGPT for students:  Develop 10 assessment ideas whereby students need to use ChatGPT in their assessment to make more critical academic decisions, with a mix of formative and summative assessment ideas.

19. Develop an alternative lesson plan: Develop an alternative lesson plan on this artificial intelligence for a particularly gifted student. Include time needed for each activity.

20. Provide YouTube summaries: Use this YouTube transcript of a previous teacher and summarise their video into 10 bullet points. Now use this data to help me develop my presentation. Outline things overlooked or underestimated in the transcript.

21. Plan notes for a tutorial: Act as a university teacher. Make notes for an online class teaching first-year biomedical engineering. Ensure to include the key details from the lecture.

22. Offer personalised feedback: Can you provide personalised feedback on this student-written discussion post? Examine for clarity, references, link to this textbook (insert reference to the specific textbook or other sources) and word count. Provide a score out of 10.

23. Generate code snippets: How do I make an HTTP request in JavaScript? Answer as if you were teaching first-year programming and offer examples, solutions, issues and common mistakes. 

24. Provide explanations: Provide the 10 most common misconceptions and explanations of Carl Jung’s work in psychology and how it differs from Sigmund Freud’s, include a Q&A list of prompts for my first-year unit in educational psychology to evaluate their knowledge after class on the topic above.

25. Develop ice-breaker or team-building exercises: Act as if it is the first day of class and use proven and effective rapport-building exercises for students to create a sense of community. Develop a series of questions for online students to engage in the class at the same time as I am delivering the class in a physical classroom.

In our next resource in this five-part series, we will share 25 uses of generative AI that can assist your administrative duties within the university. Please note that prompts and applications of AI output should adhere to the fundamental values of the International Centre for Academic Integrity: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage.