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Unlocking better GenAI results with smarter prompts

Date

3 people using digital devices.

A new GenAI Prompting course is now available to help staff and students get more useful responses from GenAI tools. The course builds on the University's 'Using GenAI at Leeds' introductory training and introduces practical prompting techniques for work and study.

Build prompting confidence

The ‘Effective GenAI Prompting’ course was developed by Digital Education and Samantha Pugh, Academic Lead for Artificial Intelligence.

The content introduces four practical techniques that can improve the quality of AI-generated outputs: 

  • Assign a role or persona
  • Set clear constraints
  • Provide relevant context
  • Specify the format you need

After exploring the four techniques, the course provides opportunities to practice applying them to example scenarios. 

Effective prompting is a core digital skill in the age of AI. This new course gives staff and students the skills and confidence to engage with generative AI in a more structured way, hopefully achieving better outcomes, with fewer prompts, helping us to meet our commitments to using AI responsibly and ethically at the University of Leeds.

Professor Samantha Pugh, Professor of STEM Higher Education and Institutional Academic Lead for Artificial Intelligence

Supporting staff in all roles

The course includes a recap of practical ways GenAI can support day-to-day work, including:

  • creating meeting agendas
  • breaking large tasks into manageable steps
  • providing feedback on your writing

The course also introduces 'meta prompting' which involves asking an AI tool to help improve an original prompt. This includes a practical template to explains how a prompt could be strengthened for better outcomes.

This course taught me that a well-written prompt can reduce the need to keep asking GenAI the same thing in different ways. Getting closer to the answer you need first time not only saves time, but also encourages more sustainable use of GenAI.

Ashika Ashok, Digital Education Intern

Supporting students with learning and assessment

The course is also available to all University of Leeds students. Examples are provided to demonstrate how GenAI can be instructed to act as a supportive study coach by giving it a clear role to shape a more useful response. The course also includes reminders about using GenAI responsibly in line with University guidance and policies relating to academic integrity.