ChatGPT is the hero of the generative AI revolution, and it has also emerged as one of the most powerful AI tools for course creation.
ChatGPT serves as an AI assistant that can engage in meaningful conversations, generate content, and provide informative responses, making it a powerful tool for course creators.
We have been using the tool for quite some time now, and we know you’ll be amazed when you see the results.
That’s why we have put together this list of over 100 ChatGPT prompts for course creators. From course design and engagement to sales and marketing, these ChatGPT prompts will help you get the best results.
Let’s get started.
How to Best Use These ChatGPT Prompts
We have developed and tested these prompts to create a course on servant leadership tailored to new college graduates who are stepping into their first managerial roles in a manufacturing plant.
Occasionally, the details of this scenario are embedded within the prompts, providing insight into our approach. Feel free to adapt any of the prompts to better suit your requirements.
Here’s a summary of advice for using these prompts to get the most out of ChatGPT:
- Maximize the inputs: The more inputs you give AI, the less generic your response will be. Feed it plenty of information to help it provide better suggestions, including content, learner profiles, preferences, opinions, your writing samples, and expertise.
- Create context: Short prompts work in the context of the chat. For example, asking AI for course ideas only works well when you’ve provided the details of your background, preferences, target audience, and expertise. More details yields better results.
- Keep the same chat: Use the same chat for the whole project. That ensures the AI makes decisions with all the previous inputs and context.
- Train your AI assistant: We’ve provided some extensive training prompts that can assist your AI in making suggestions from a professional persona.
- Specify your format: If you want the output to be in a specific format, say so. It can put your content into a bulleted list, multiple choice question format, formula, matrix, or more.
- Offer lots of feedback: AI is the ultimate people pleaser. If you don’t like the response you get, tell it. Say something like, “That’s not quite right; I was looking for…” The more you tell it what you like or don’t like and why, the better it predicts what you want.
Course Planning
Course planning is where you’ll complete all the analysis tasks related to your course. If you’re familiar with the ADDIE model (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate), course planning is the Analysis phase.
In this phase, you become an expert in your audience, content, audience gaps, and learning objectives.
Before you begin this phase, you want to train ChatGPT to act as an expert instructional designer, emphasizing the analytics and course objectives.
You’ll use this first prompt to train your AI partner. In each set of tasks, you’ll add more knowledge to your AI partner with a new prompt because each phase requires different skills.
Hello, I’m working with an exceptional instructional designer who has a deep understanding of adult learning principles and project management. This instructional designer is skilled at tailoring content to the intended audience and excels in parsing complex information into easily digestible formats. This instructional designer is capable of writing clear objectives that are easy to measure. If you’re ready to provide insights and guidance in line with this persona’s expertise, will you please say ready?
Use the following prompts to complete tasks in your course planning. Before you start, feed this AI all the inputs you want it to consider as you create this.
Accurate information from your project is always better than guesses. For example, if you have factual information directly from your audience or clients, use it to create your learner personas.
Create Learner Personas to Refine Your Audience
While our learner profiles were AI-generated, actual data is better.
We included details about the personas that could impact their motivation and barriers to performance. These were incredibly helpful for creating activities, objectives, and content that would address these.
We kept the details of the topic, audience, and context in the prompts in this section only to show you how we used them. Modify these for your topic, audience, and context.
Can you help me clarify my audience by creating an ideal learner persona for someone in my audience who would be interested in this course and benefit by it? I’d like to include demographics, goals and motivations, challenges, the learning objectives that apply best to this person, and aspirations?
Will you please create a second learner persona for a young white man who is highly motivated and may struggle with servant leadership because he is more accustomed to a hierarchical structure and include what belief shift may need to happen for him to accept a servant leadership approach.
Will you help me create a third learner persona that includes a woman of color who may struggle with leadership in general because she has encountered many doubters in her life and is hesitant to step into her power and include what needs to occur for her to see that servant leadership is exactly the right move for her.
Generate Course Ideas
Use these prompts to help you brainstorm course ideas that would be meaningful to your audience.
Please help me come up with course ideas around the [topic] for [audience].
What interesting and creative course ideas about [topic] would appeal to [audience] and catch their attention?
Research Your Course Topic
We continue to get the best AI-generated responses when we add details about the learner’s motivations and barriers. Include this information in your learner profiles for the best results.
I want to talk to these [audience members] before I create a course about [topic]. Using the skills of an instructional designer and a psychometrician, what questions would be most important for me to ask to assess their needs, motivations, and barriers to learning?
As I research [topic] to prepare a course for [audience], who are some of the most important thought leaders I need to read and study on the topic and my audience?
What are some of the most important summarized thoughts on the intersection of this topic with this audience?
Create Course Outlines
ChatGPT created a good outline based on the following prompt.
Can you please create a complete course outline about [topic], emphasizing [specific challenge] for my audience of [audience and context]? This is a [describe how the course is delivered] course with [number] lessons, and each lesson must catch the student’s attention. At the end, we want each student to [describe the desired outcome].
However, since this is a generalized tool, we suggest you compare the results with the output from our online course outline generator, which is designed for this task.
Brainstorm Course Activities and Assessments
We added some details so the AI would create different and unusual activities. Without these details, some of the suggestions sound generic. These suggestions continued to improve within this chat because of our feedback and the context.
For each of the lessons you gave, please provide three examples of activities that would help the student meet the objective of that lesson in a way that shifts their identity and is measurable by a mentor. All activities should be challenging and rewarding. We want them to be something they likely haven’t seen before. And these must be completed on their own.
What are some ways we can assess these students when they complete the course? How can we prove to them and to the organization that the course was valuable?
Generate Discussion Topics for Each Lesson
These are simple prompts, and they work because they’re in the context of this chat.
Looking at lesson 1, what are some discussion topics that are likely to appeal to [audience]?
Looking at Lesson 1, what are some interesting topics of discussion we can add that include diverse role models?
Craft Learning Objectives and Outcomes
Using Bloom’s Taxonomy helps you see the depth of your objectives. You can see what information only needs to be remembered and what concepts can be analyzed, evaluated, or synthesized. Not all online courses require great depth, but this helps determine what is possible.
Can you please identify the learning objectives for lesson one? Please put these in a bulleted format with the main objectives as bullets and supporting objectives as sub-bullets and identify the level of Bloom’s in parentheticals at the end of each objective.
What might be the most effective learning objectives for lesson 4 if we wanted to include analyze and evaluate objectives from Bloom’s Taxonomy?
This course on [topic] is looking really promising. How would we expect the students to describe the impact it had on them?
Develop a Timeline for Course Content Delivery
Your AI-generated project plan is improved when you tell it what needs to be created and include the roles and responsibilities of anyone working with you.
A course provided live on your own has a very different project plan than one delivered in an app with edited video production and a team of five people.
If I needed to have this course completed by [date], what would my project plan look like with deadlines attached?
Could you please provide a project plan for developing a dripped online course on [topic] with [number] lessons, each lasting [length], to be completed by [date]? The plan should include specific milestones, tasks, and deadlines for course design, content creation, multimedia production, beta testing, finalization, and launch.
Create a List of Required and Recommended Resources
The current free version of ChatGPT has information up to September 2021. So its suggestions will only contain content published before that date.
Would you please help me create a list of 25 recommended resources for [audience] who are taking this course on [topic]? All the items you list should be from published books, or online content, or TED Talks that are publicly available. These should all be resources that help to broaden or deepen their knowledge of [topic]. Please list these in order of relevance.
Research Course Platforms
ChatGPT doesn’t always give you factual information. Moreover, it only includes information before September 2021, so that means you can’t rely on it for up-to-date research.
However, ChatGPT can still help with some general research. Here are two prompts that gave acceptable results:
I’m not tech savvy. Can you please give advice regarding the types of course platforms that could be used for hosting my online course?
If I wanted to include a community aspect to my course, which platforms might work best?
For more in-depth analysis and comparisons, we highly recommend reading our article on online course platform options. It can provide you with valuable insights on the top course builders, and you can also compare them side by side using our comparison tool.
Course Creation
For this section, you’ll want to train your AI to emphasize creative aspects of an instructional designer. Use this prompt in the same chat to add creativity to your AI assistant. This training helps you create innovative and engaging content.
Hello, I have the privilege of collaborating with an exceptional instructional designer who possesses an innate understanding of adult learning principles and project management. What truly sets this designer apart is their extraordinary ability to infuse creativity and experimentation into their work. They have an uncanny talent for tailoring content to captivate the intended audience, skillfully transforming intricate information into captivating and innovative formats.
This instructional designer thrives on pushing boundaries and isn’t afraid to venture into uncharted territory. Their approach is marked by ingenious and unconventional methods that engage learners in novel ways. Whether it’s crafting immersive learning experiences or devising unique ways to convey complex concepts, this designer consistently dares to explore new avenues.
Furthermore, this designer’s talent extends to crafting objectives that not only guide learning but also serve as a canvas for measurable outcomes. Their knack for blending creativity with clear, measurable objectives is truly remarkable.
If you’re prepared to offer insights and guidance that align with the dynamic and inventive nature of this instructional designer, please indicate your readiness. Your input will be greatly appreciated as we continue to innovate and reimagine the landscape of education.
Once you’ve trained your AI, use the following prompts for these course design tasks. Continue to let your AI know what you like and what improvements you’d like to see, and it will continue to produce even better results.
Write Lesson Content and Explanations
In this prompt, we’re using Gagne’s tried-and-true format for lesson planning. These lessons are tailored to the learners and objectives of your course.
We got the best results by requesting them one lesson at a time.
I want to create a course on [topic] that uses this [outline] for these [learner personas]. Using these profiles, I want to create a detailed design for each lesson using Gagne’s nine events of instruction. Can you please create a detailed design for lesson #1?
Generate Real-World Examples and Case Studies
This pair’s first prompt generated suggestions we could choose from to build a case study. The second prompt used one of the real-world suggestions and produced the case study.
I’m looking for well-known real-world figures who embody the principles of [topic] and would resonate with our learner personas, [persona names]. These examples should be relevant to their backgrounds, concerns, and aspirations, while illustrating how [topic] has been applied in [specific context] or similar contexts. Can you provide examples of individuals who are both widely recognized and interesting to our personas, demonstrating the concepts of [topic]?
Can you help me build a case study on [chosen case study subject] that demonstrates the difference her [topic] made using both qualitative and quantitative measures? This case study should address a few of the motivations and challenges in the personas of [persona names].
Create Quizzes and Assessments
AI consistently created well-written quizzes and assessments. However, these tended to be fairly generic unless we gave it conditions and specifications. That means including enough criteria to clarify if the questions are intended to be used as a formative or summative evaluation.
- Formative evaluations test comprehension during the class. They aren’t typically graded and can often be fun and engaging.
- Summative evaluations are for graded tests given at the end of the class, section, or course. While a multiple choice test is easier to grade, you can make these project-based using a rubric.
The first two prompts generate questions that test for understanding in the classroom. The next two produce excellent end-of-course exam questions. The last prompt helps prove the value of the course to your client.
What seven quiz questions would help to highlight the differences in [case study’s subject’s skill] when compared to a typical CEO [insert any equivalent here instead of CEO]? Please list these questions as multiple choice questions.
What journaling questions would help our learner personas personalize the lessons they learn from [case study] so they can see how to apply it in their own work?
Can you please help me create a scenario-based quiz to assess how well they retained the content? Let’s make these scenarios that include situations that they are likely to face over the next two years. Please create 20 questions, with two of them being very tough. I’d like you to put these into a multiple-choice format with believable distractors. All of these questions should be at Bloom’s analyze or evaluate levels.
Can you help me create two scenario-based questions for each lesson of the course? These would be at Bloom’s analyze and evaluate levels.
In what ways could we create a single self-assessment that would help everyone who completes this course on [topic] see the difference this course has made in their own lives?
Draft Engaging Video Script Outlines
While ChatGPT doesn’t create lengthy scripts, it provides excellent outlines. In cases where the scripts were too “cheesy” we gave feedback and received improved revisions.
Please help me create an engaging video script for presenting the first lesson of my online course on [topic]. The goal is to make the video interesting and appealing to my audience, which is represented by the personas of [persona names]. The script should incorporate the detailed design for lesson one, including the case study about [chosen case study]. I want the script to use language and attention-grabbers that will capture the audience’s attention and keep them engaged throughout the video.
Could you please assist me in creating a 30-second video script for a teaser about lesson one? The objective is to engage and motivate our audience personas [persona names] to explore the course further. The script should focus on addressing key motivators for these personas without explicitly featuring them in the video.
Generate Ideas for Visual Aids and Presentation Slides
ChatGPT can offer suggestions regarding the types of visuals that can aid your course, like fonts, colors, and symbols, but it won’t provide the visuals.
What visual aids would help our personas visualize the differences [desired outcomes] can make and be useful in lesson one?
What presentation slides do I need to create for lesson one?
Write Practical Exercises and Hands-On Projects
We’ve included some of the specifics we needed for these prompts, like “workbook using pen and paper” and “hands-on activity.” Modify these as needed for the method you’ll use to deliver your activities.
I want to use this activity. [Activity description: You can copy and paste one of the recommended activities] Can you help me write clear instructions for how to complete this activity in a workbook using pen and paper? If the audience needs to come up with scenarios to complete this, please provide three examples.
Can you help me brainstorm a hands-on activity that relates to lesson one that could be completed in 15 minutes by members of the audience in groups of 5–7 while on a video conference call? I’ll need the step-by-step directions for the activity.
Create Step-by-Step Tutorials and Walkthroughs
Use ChatGPT to create any reference materials your audience might need. Given the details of your course, AI can help you anticipate the materials you need and help you create them.
As a result of their [new skills], we anticipate that members of our audience will [new desired behavior]. Can you provide a step-by-step method they can use to research and test [changes]? This should include [any step you want to include].
Please, do you have suggestions for a walkthrough that the audience can use when demonstrating the value of what they learned in this course when discussing it with their boss?
Generate Simulations or Scenarios for Practical Learning
Use your AI assistant to produce simulations and scenarios so your clients can practice using their new skills. The third prompt in this list helped provide specific directions in a role-play simulation.
Let’s create five challenging, yet rewarding scenarios that our audience can use to practice their [topic] skills. These scenarios should address some of the challenges we see in the learner profiles but not use their names in it.
Let’s create some simulations to run on a video conference call. Can you please come up with five challenging yet rewarding simulations that we can run where some of the other members role-play a situation the audience member has to navigate?
For each of the simulations, can you provide the specific goals and expectations of the role-play participants?
Craft Engaging Opening and Closing Statements for Each Lesson
In addition to asking this question in this phase, we asked about opening statements at the end. Because of the context of the conversation, the final suggestions were spot on.
For lesson one, can you please create an engaging opening that will immediately capture the attention of my audience?
For the first lesson, can you help me write a closing sequence that encourages [audience] to be open to trying this [topic] even if it feels uncomfortable? We want to encourage them to trust that it might take time to see results and it could feel different.
For the last lesson, can you help me write a closing that will inspire and motivate my audience to continue to practice the lessons they learned throughout the course?
Craft Your Course Offer
Our training prompt helps direct the advice of our AI assistant so it can help with selling your online course. We intentionally avoid naming any individual because we don’t want to unintentionally copy the voice of any professional. That could infringe on their IP.
Instead, we want to train our AI assistant to provide marketing ideas while continuing to use our own voice.
Hello! I am a passionate creator ready to take my online course to the next level. Will you join forces with me, as an expert copywriter and marketer, who specializes in crafting captivating names, taglines, descriptions, lead magnets, and more!
I invite you to be an expert collaborator, lending your creative gifts to shape the course’s identity. Your skills in crafting compelling names that resonate, crafting taglines that stick, weaving descriptions that enthrall, and devising irresistible lead magnets will be the driving force behind our course’s success.
Are you ready to begin?
Once you’ve primed those marketing skills in your AI assistant, you’re ready to complete these tasks.
Write Compelling Course Descriptions That Highlight Benefits
If you know how you’ll use your descriptions, whether in a social media post or email, include those details.
Can you please help write a course description that appeals to buyers who are similar to our learner personas?
Can you help me write a few brief descriptions that are limited to 3–5 sentences that can easily be put into an email?
Generate Creative Course Names and Taglines
ChatGPT is a fantastic general tool and assistant. Try comparing the results you get from your chat to those you get from our dedicated online course name generator.
What are three possible attention-grabbing names for this course?
What course names are most likely to appeal to our personas?
What course names are most likely to appeal to [audience] who are [context]?
What taglines would make the benefits of this course obvious to our audience?
What taglines would highlight the benefits of our course?
Craft Persuasive Sales Page Copy to Drive Enrollments
For the best results, modify the prompts below to include as many details about your sales page as possible, including what it’s tied to, where you’re promoting it, and who’s looking at it and sharing it.
Please help me design the copy for a sales page for my course. I’d like you to organize this by each section you’d typically find on a good sales page.
Since this course might be purchased by a business for our audience, can you create a version that appeals to our learner persona’s managers?
Write Scripts for Promotional Videos or Webinars
Modify these prompts based on where you’ll use your promotional content. And tell your AI assistant when the tone seems off, for example, if it’s too cheesy or too boring.
I’d like to create some video shorts that promote this on YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. Can you please create a short script that catches the attention of [audience] and ties this course to success in the [context]?
I’d like to create some video shorts that promote this on YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. Can you please create a short script that catches the attention of the employers of [audience] and ties this course to [what buyers want]?
Brainstorm Bonus Materials and Pricing to Incentivize Enrollment
Use these prompts to come up with ideas for the types of bonus materials that matter to your audience.
What bonus incentives or add-ons might convince people in our audience that this is the right time to purchase this?
What bonus incentives or add-ons might convince people in our audience that this is a worthwhile investment in their future?
If we price this course at [price] as a regular price, what limited-time discounts might make sense for our audience?
Generate Email Sequences for Pre-Launch and Follow-Up
Read these email sequences carefully to ensure they contain correct information and convey the tone you want.
Can you write an email that goes out after lesson [number] that offers a quick recap of what they learned, encourages them to put it into practice, and previews a bit of what they can expect in lesson [next number]?
Can you please write a welcome email that goes to my clients as soon as they sign up for my course? This email needs to be celebratory in tone, congratulate them on their decision, tell the details about how to log into the course, and include the free bonus item they get for signing up.
Can you write a version of this email that goes to a new client when their manager purchases this course for them?
Craft FAQs for the Course Offer Page
Modify this by the number of questions or remove the number if you prefer. Include as many details as you want to produce the best results.
What are seven of the most common questions a potential buyer might have when encountering our sales page? And how can we best ask and answer these on the page? Can you please list these as FAQs?
Online Course Marketing
For this section, we will train ChatGPT to help market your course. Your AI assistant will produce content that can help you connect with and build your audience.
Hello! I am a passionate creator ready to take my online course marketing to the next level. As I seek to enhance my course’s visibility and impact, I’m specifically looking for an expert copywriter and marketer to lead our organic marketing efforts. These tasks will center around promoting my [topic] course tailored for [audience in context]. I’m in search of an individual who excels in crafting engaging social media posts, developing compelling email campaigns, and formulating persuasive influencer outreach messages.
I’m extending an invitation for you to step into the role of our esteemed collaborator, responsible for shaping the course’s identity and driving its success through captivating social media content, effective email sequences, and impactful influencer communication. Your expertise will be instrumental in promoting the course’s value using powerful organic marketing strategies.
Are you ready to take the helm on this exciting marketing journey together?
The prompts in this section work because our AI assistant already has all the relevant content about our course and our audience.
Generate Blog Post Ideas to Build Anticipation
This prompt generated 15 blog post ideas that seemed promising. Since the AI cannot access general internet content after September 2021, you may want to check this with other updated resources.
Based on common topics that are of interest to [audience and context], what are some blog post topics that might catch their interest?
Create Enticing Freebies as Lead Magnets
Some lead magnets are easy to create (like a case study or whitepaper), and others take more work (like an e-book or video series). Modify this if you want to limit its suggestions.
What lead magnets could I offer to build an email list of [audience and context]? Ideally this lead magnet would build credibility and make this course a logical next step.
What freebies tend to be the most attractive to the people in this audience?
Create Social Media Posts and Captions
Modify the second prompt with the social media platform of your choice. We got good results for LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
I’m looking to build meaningful conversations and connections with people who will benefit from my course and do it in a way that builds that know-like-trust factor. What social media platforms are most commonly used by people in my audience that will help me do that?
Can you please help me brainstorm some ideas of what pictures, captions, and content about this course would intrigue [audience] on [social media platform]?
Craft Email Subject Lines and Body Content
Modify this prompt by substituting the tone you want to create in each email.
Generate Ideas for Podcast Episodes or Interviews
Use these prompts to land interviews with popular podcasts.
Can you please help me brainstorm ideas for podcast titles that would promote this course in which the concept of [topic] is favorably contrasted to what is commonly seen in [context] today?
Can you please help me write a compelling template for an email that I can submit to popular podcast hosts promoting the idea of interviewing me on their podcast? It needs to highlight how this topic is appealing to many people in [context] and showcase the phenomenal results we’ve achieved with our test subjects where their [specific results of the test]. I will personalize each email as I research potential podcast hosts.
If I wanted to promote an interview on [social media platform] that would attract my audience, who would I want to interview?
Brainstorm Webinar Topics for Promotional Events
Use this prompt to begin planning a webinar. Treat the webinar like this course and conduct a lot of the same planning, design, and marketing steps.
Can you please help me brainstorm webinar topics that would attract buyers in my audience?
Where would I want to promote this webinar?
Write Guest Post Pitches for Other Websites
Giving specific website information for different blogs is incredibly specific and helps generate great suggestions. If the blog is newer than September 2021, you may need to tell your AI assistant about the blog rather than rely on the website address.
I’d love to submit a guest blog on blogs like [first blog example] and [second blog example]. Can you please help me write an introductory email where I propose writing this post and demonstrate how what I have to write benefits their audience? This can be a template that I personalize for each targeted blog owner.
Create Content for YouTube or Other Video Platforms
When creating video outlines with AI, be sure the purpose and audience is specified.
As part of the promotional boost, I want to create a YouTube video to give background on why this topic is important for this audience, including my own story about how this made a difference for me. Can you create a video outline for me to use?
Can you help me outline a second video that highlights the successes of our beta group?
Can you help create a third video that demonstrates the changes this made to the managers and direct reports of our beta group?
Generate Ideas for Collaborations or Joint Ventures
We kept this prompt fairly generic so it wouldn’t be negatively impacted by ChatGPT’s lack of updated data on personalities.
Can you give me ideas for who I might want to collaborate with as we deliver this course? Are there any possibilities for joint ventures?
Student Engagement and Support
Let’s train our AI assistant so it’s a facilitation expert who promotes learner engagement and offers the right amount of support.
This prompt tells it that we have a preference for constructivism, which means we prefer an experiential approach. That’s because we want to depend more on learners discovering things than us telling them.
Modify this if you have a personal style or preference you want it to use.
Hello, my AI friend. Please step into the role of an experienced and skilled classroom facilitator who is dedicated to creating engaging and effective learning experiences for adult learners.
As this persona, you’ll provide guidance, strategies, and insights tailored to fostering a positive and impactful learning environment. You have a wealth of knowledge in adult education, instructional design, and learner engagement. Though you’re knowledgeable in behaviorism, and cognitivism, you have a preference for constructivism, believing that your role as facilitator is to allow your students to learn through experience and discovery.
Your goal is to empower learners to succeed, encourage active participation, and ensure that complex concepts are presented in a clear and comprehensible manner. Through your responses, I ask for your assistance to inspire and support educators and course creators in their efforts to create transformative learning journeys so together we can serve those who participate in these learning experiences.
If you’re ready, say ready.
Generate Discussion Prompts for Online Forums or Groups
We intentionally built learner profiles with diversity and expect that these differences might create conflict. So this prompt helps us generate discussions that promote sharing while valuing differences.
Considering the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our learners, we’re seeking thought-provoking discussion questions that will encourage engaging conversations and shared learning. These questions should inspire our learners, including [learner profile names], to share their unique perspectives on [topic] and its application in [context]. The aim is to [input desired result of the discussion]. These questions should foster meaningful interactions that help learners learn from one another and apply these insights.
Create Welcome Messages and Orientation Materials
Use this prompt to help you create onboarding and orientation materials.
When our students first show up in our classrooms, online course platforms, or in remote meetings, that first impression is lasting and can impact their attitude toward learning. Can you help me write a warm introduction message so they’re inspired?
Considering the purpose of this course and the questions our learners might have, what information and materials need to be included in orientation and onboarding so they feel excited to begin and feel as though “we get them”?
Craft Responses to Student Questions and Challenges
Use this prompt for ready responses to common questions, as well as the more difficult ones. While not all of these may apply, consider how these might inspire you to think about the questions you may face.
Can you help me brainstorm questions new students are likely to ask and help me write responses to them?
New students frequently ask if they can opt out of this course and they can’t. How can I answer this question in a way that helps change their mind?
What are likely some of the most difficult and challenging situations I might need to address in teaching this course to [audience]?
What are some of the most likely sensitive issues students might come to me to address?
Can you please help me create a response for each of these situations?
It’s best to handle your most challenging situations as one-offs. Address these clients personally with active listening skills and empathy. Or consider getting options by using a different AI persona and giving it specific details of your situation and what you’d like to see as the desired outcome.
Generate Engaging Announcements and Updates
Since communication can be boring, these prompts generated some fun content. Modify these with themes that work for your audience and content.
To help generate excitement for continuing this course, can you please help me write a series of weekly announcements that we can release the day before each class?
Since these announcements are going to go out on Tuesdays, can you help make them all taco themed for Taco Tuesdays?
We have a secret assignment we want to spring on them in Week 5. Can you create a special update message for that week so that they scramble to find a last-minute change that will surprise and delight them? This should sound like a message from Mission: Impossible.
Brainstorm Ideas for Memorable Activities and Icebreakers
Whether you’re building community within your course by getting to know one another or building community in your neighborhood with charitable activities, these prompts can help you think of fun ways to bring your group together.
Note that we added phrases like “something they haven’t seen before” and included specific intentions to generate better responses.
Can you please create five activities our learners could complete together to create a sense of community within the course? For each proposed activity, please provide the objective, the different roles, and the directions.
Can you please create five activities our learners could complete together in their communities to promote team building while having a positive impact on others?
This class occurs in [location] and I want the learners to have a positive impact on others in their community. Can you provide five different charities in the area where they could work together for a day? I’d like to have the addresses and phone numbers of the organizations so I can arrange this.
Can you help me brainstorm five possible icebreaker activities for the first online class? These should be simple and fun, and something they haven’t seen before.
Can you help me generate interesting and unusual icebreaker questions that we can add to an online community to support this course? I’d like these questions to catch their attention and provoke thought and engagement.
Can you please suggest some group activities we can do to create a collaborative feeling? I’d like a suggestion for activities to occur during the second, fifth, and final weeks.
Considering the topics and activities we’ve discussed, do you see an opportunity to create an assignment or project that has the potential to be something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives?
Write Feedback and Encouragement for Assignments
Whether you’re reviewing a stack of paperwork or looking through several posts, it can feel exhausting to come up with new and different ways to provide feedback. Your AI assistant can generate phrases and statements you can use.
Can you please provide 20 different feedback statements I can choose from as I evaluate students’ work? I’d like these to be organized so that feedback for excellent work is at the top and feedback for work that requires the most improvement is at the bottom. All statements need to be upbeat and encouraging and relate to the paper they submit. I will personalize these.
Can you please provide 20 statements I can use when I see students struggling? I want to use these in DMs to encourage or inspire during the course.
Generate Ideas for Live Q&A Sessions
Note that this prompt specifies that this Q&A shouldn’t be boring. That’s because our first prompt produced some very generic ideas. When we asked it to be creative, it gave much better results.
I’m going to end the course with a Q&A session. Can you please help me generate 15 ideas that can make the session interesting (not boring), and encourage everyone to participate?
Create Templates for Addressing Plagiarism or Academic Integrity Concerns
Modify this for your course. Your course might not have plagiarism concerns, but it might have other ethical dilemmas.
Can you help me plan how to respond to situations where students are suspected of breaking ethical standards, such as cheating or plagiarism? I’d like to create a policy that’s shared with all students in orientation and a plan for addressing each concern, including identification, research, follow-up, and response.
Course Evaluation
This prompt trains ChatGPT to generate suggestions associated with course evaluation. It’s written with a preference for Jack Phillips’ ROI model, which is business-focused, instead of Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation, which is best for academic work.
Imagine you are a seasoned learning evaluation specialist with a strong focus on evaluating the outcomes of training programs using Jack Phillips’ Return on Investment (ROI) model. While you have a solid understanding of Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation, your expertise lies in leveraging the ROI model to measure the impact and value of learning experiences. Your proficiency allows you to analyze learning interventions and their direct influence on organizational performance and business objectives. As an experienced evaluator, you have the skills to guide and shape the evaluation approach for a [topic] course tailored for [audience in context]. You can provide insights on how to strategically measure the course’s effectiveness, financial impact, and alignment with business goals.
In this role, you will play a pivotal part in evaluating the outcomes of the [topic] course for [audience in context], with a primary focus on Jack Phillips’ ROI model. Drawing from your expertise, you will collaborate on crafting an evaluation strategy that aligns with organizational objectives and demonstrates the course’s tangible benefits. By leveraging the ROI model, you will help design a comprehensive measurement framework, identify key performance metrics, and analyze data to quantify the course’s impact on learners’ leadership skills and business outcomes. Your contributions will guide the course’s continuous improvement and ensure its relevance in driving both individual growth and organizational success.
Once you’ve trained your AI, you can move forward. This assumes that you’re continuing to use the same chat so that it has all the context and information to help with these suggestions.
Create an Evaluation Plan for Your Course
If you plan to evaluate your course, it’s good to start with an evaluation plan. The first prompt includes all the different layers of evaluation. Modify this if you want to narrow the focus.
This second prompt feeds from the previous one. The AI structured the output of the last prompt using Phillips’ ROI model and the first part of it is the learner satisfaction survey.
Can you please help me create an evaluation plan for this course? This plan should help us determine how well they liked the course, how well they understood the concepts, whether or not it caused a change to the way they led their direct reports, whether or not it had an impact on the business, and whether or not there was a return on investment.
What are some good questions we could include in the learner satisfaction survey?
Create Rubrics for Assessing Assignments
This prompt was based on using case studies as a final exam. You can modify it based on the type of assessment you create for your course.
While evaluating the application of concepts, we’ll need to score their responses. Can you please help me create a rubric for determining their success in applying the concepts of [topic] to the case studies we assign them?
Brainstorm Ideas for Course Improvement
Use this prompt to help you improve the course now or in the future.
Can you please help me brainstorm ideas for possible course improvement in the future?
Craft Questions for Focus Groups or Interviews
Your clients are a rich source of information. Use this prompt to help you get their ideas to improve your course.
If I held a group session with all the students at the end of the course to get their feedback, what are 12 questions I might ask to tap their innovative ideas for course improvement?
Are there any questions from an Appreciative Inquiry approach that might have them thinking a bit deeper?
Generate Ideas for Post-Course Reflection Activities
Use this to help create ideas for how students can adopt new behaviors as their own.
Can you help me create a meaningful post-course reflection assignment that might improve our chances of having them apply what they learned?
Write Self-Assessment Prompts for Learners
This prompt can help you create an ongoing self-assessment your clients can use at the end of the course and as they continue to use the practices they learned.
Can you please help me create a self-assessment that students can take at the conclusion of their program? I’d like to have it be something they can continue to use after the program, so please make it simple and focused on positives.
Generate Criteria for Peer Evaluations or Group Projects
These prompts include a lot of details because it can be difficult to grade another person’s work. Using this level of detail can help all the clients be more successful.
In lesson three, I want students to grade each other’s work. Can you please help me create the assignment and the instructions for this? This needs to focus on the objective for that lesson, and I’d like the assignment to make both students feel successful. The instructions need to include examples of the type of feedback they can provide to each other.
In lesson five, I want students to complete an assignment and post about it on the community platform. Can you please help me create the assignment? I need clear instructions on completing the assignment as well as clear instructions for how to provide feedback using the [concepts of topic] and examples of what that feedback might look like?
I’d like to split the students into groups of three and have them complete a team project and then evaluate themselves and post about it in the community, along with their self-assessed grade. Can you please help me create an activity like that and the instructions to provide them?
Craft Follow-Up Materials to Ensure Long-Term Impact
One of the saddest facts about formal learning is that people don’t always continue to use what they learn. They’ll fall into old behaviors, especially when faced with difficult situations. These prompts help you consider what ongoing support can help them maintain these new behaviors.
Note that the first prompt didn’t include diverse options, so we added the second prompt. Depending on your results, you might not need this.
Can you suggest specific programs or courses they can take or thought leaders they can follow to learn more about this topic?
Are there some diverse thought leaders in this field you might suggest?
Can you please help me think of other methods for providing ongoing encouragement of their newly learned behaviors to support them for the following six months, one year, and two years after completing the course?
Can you help me create a comprehensive plan for providing ongoing support and encouragement of their newly acquired skills for the next six months, one year, and two years? This plan needs to take up very little of their time, be something they are happy to see when it pops up, and provide some sort of helpline for when they run into problems.
Miscellaneous
Now, let’s share some miscellaneous ChatGPT prompts that aren’t covered by the categories above.
Create Engaging Prompts for Journaling or Reflection
If you’re thinking of including a journal for ongoing reflection, use this prompt.
I’d like to create an eight-week journal for them to keep during this course. Can you please help me create daily prompts for those eight weeks that help them reflect on the lessons from that week? This journal will begin after their first weekly session.
Craft Congratulatory Notes
This prompt will generate some ideas you can use for notes to give to clients who complete your program.
Can you please help me come up with three examples of personalized congratulatory notes that I could give to students based on the progress we anticipate we’ll see in the learner profiles?
Generate Ideas for Gamification Elements
Gamification requires additional skills, so this first prompt directs the AI to think like someone with gamification expertise. The second one generates gamification possibilities.
Hello, I’m seeking your expertise to enhance the engagement and interactivity of our [topic] course for [audience in context]. We’re looking to incorporate gamification elements to make the learning experience even more exciting and effective. Your suggestions can revolve around gamifying specific activities, lesson plans, or even suggesting changes to the course structure that would lend itself well to gamification. Feel free to provide detailed ideas on how we can implement gamification, such as turning a particular lesson into a game, introducing a competition, or adding rewards and challenges. Your insights will help create a dynamic and engaging learning journey for our students. Looking forward to your innovative suggestions!
Can you please suggest the three most significant modifications we can make to this course, or a lesson, or an activity that would cause it to be a great gamification experience?
Create Brainstorming Prompts for Student Projects
This is a two-part prompt where we used the first prompt to create the context for the brainstorming. Modify this to create the context for your course projects.
In lesson [number], I want the students to use their [specific skills] to [desired activity outcome]. Can you please create the instructions for this assignment and provide a scoring rubric for this?
For the assignment in lesson [number], what brainstorming prompts can we provide for them as they work to [desired activity outcome]?
Generate Ideas for Guest Speakers or Expert Interviews
You may need to research outside of ChatGPT to get current data on speakers or potential interview guests.
Which thought leaders on the topic of [topic] would be most interesting to [audience]?
Is there a list of people who are interesting to my audience and brilliant on this topic and yet available for me to interview?
Generate Ideas for Virtual Meetups or Networking Events
Use this to suggest ongoing contact with people on this topic.
Can you please suggest some ideas for virtual meetups or networking events they can attend to surround themselves with voices in this field?
Craft Opening Lines for Live Workshops or Webinars
This was the last prompt we created. Because of the amount of ongoing context in this chat, our AI assistant nailed this with several incredibly rich options.
Considering the impact we want to make with this class, can you please suggest five possible opening lines I can use to grab their attention in that first lesson? I want it to embody the principles we want to teach and make a lasting impression.
Conclusion
We are all still learning how to use AI in a way that enhances what we have to offer. And ChatGPT is the easiest way to begin today.
When using ChatGPT, it’s essential to incorporate your authentic content and voice. Provide all your raw material, your worldview, your understanding of your audience, and your unique flair. Then, use AI to organize and translate your uniqueness into content your audience can use.
It won’t replace you. Instead, it will help you move faster.
ChatGPT can become your very patient assistant. Be patient and continue to give it information and feedback, and it will continue to improve and create excellent content.
We hope you enjoyed this list of ChatGPT prompts for course creation, and if you have any further questions or tips you’d like to share, let us know in the comments.