Chatbot as a teaching assistant 

QUESTIONING TECHNIQUE

• The students become aware of how to ask "good" questions that provide good answers.  

MAKING THE TEACHER MORE ACCESSIBLE

• By using chatbots to answer simple questions, the teacher is more accessible to answer more complex questions.  

DIGITAL COMPETENCIES

• Through the exercise, students gain experience of chatbots and their advantages and limitations. Students also practise using their skills meaningfully, including to write good "prompts".   

Introduce the use of chatbots

Start by introducing the students to the exercise. Talk to them about how to use a chatbot. Find inspiration on the page about chatbots here. Also address 

• How to formulate a good question that provides the answer you are looking for. 

• How to verify the answers you get

The students ask the chatbot questions.

• The students formulate a number of questions about a topic they want the chatbot to answer. 

• The students instruct the chatbot to answer their questions, for example by providing the chatbot with context for the question, specifying the academic field or other requirements for its answer to each question.  

• After some time, the students can switch roles with the chatbot and test their knowledge by having the chatbot ask the students questions about the topic. 

Fact-checking the chatbot's answers 

• The students sit in pairs and discuss the chatbot's answers. They can fact-check with each other or in relevant literature. If the students are still unsure, they write down the question and discuss it in plenum or in dialogue with the teacher. 

• The students ask questions they are still unsure about. The whole class can make suggestions, while the teacher can elaborate. 

• Ask the students about the quality of the answers they received, and whether there was a difference in the answers they received from different ways of asking the questions. 

• When you give a chatbot an instruction, it is called a "prompt". In class, you can help each other explore and become better at writing good prompts by sharing questions and answers with each other and possibly by making a short analysis or conclusion of the answers. This will give you the best result in your dialogue with a chatbot. 

• Carry out the activity online by presenting the exercise to the students before class, e.g. as an academic presentation on video. Ask the students to prepare for class by carrying out the individual part of the activity and bringing their questions and the chatbot's answers to class. In class, send the students into breakout rooms to fact-check the chatbot's answers.

• The students can also use chatbots to test themselves on a text or concept. The students instruct the chatbot to ask questions and to give feedback on the students’ answers to a given concept. The students can use this exercise to practise formulating the topic and answering questions without preparation.