Book summary: ChatGPT Assignments to Use in Your Classroom Today

Many of us are looking for good quality insights on teaching marketing in the fast-emerging age of AI. Regular readers know that I am partial to Wharton Entrepreneurship’s work at One Useful Thing and of course, I continue to recommend you read what Ethan Mollick posts three.

I was pleased to see that a team of scholars from the University of Central Florida wrote a book, ChatGPT Assignments to Use in Your Classroom Today (2023, Yee, Whittington, Doggette, and Uttich). This ebook is free and open access. It provides a comprehensive guide showing how educators can effectively integrate ChatGPT into their teaching strategies. It is aimed primarily at higher education faculty and offers a variety of assignments and activities designed to help students develop AI fluency and critical thinking skills using ChatGPT.

AI seems to be particularly important for marketing professionals. One study of 100,000 workers in Denmark, found marketing professionals to be one of the biggest users of ChatGPT. See also “How AI Is Transforming Marketing (2024).”

Full disclosure: ChatGPT was used to generate a first draft of the following summary.

Key Themes and Content from ChatGPT Assignments to Use in Your Classroom Today

1. Introduction to AI and ChatGPT:
   • Explains what ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) are and how they function as generative AI tools.
   • Discusses the potential of ChatGPT in educational contexts, emphasizing its ability to brainstorm, generate ideas, and provide varied responses to prompts.
2. AI Fluency Components:
   • The document outlines seven components of AI fluency that students should develop:
     1. Understanding how AI works.
     2. Deciding when to use AI.
     3. Valuing AI.
     4. Effective prompt engineering.
     5. Evaluating AI output.
     6. Adding human value.
     7. Displaying digital adaptability.
3. Assignments for Teaching Prompt Engineering:
   • Conversation and Regenerate Responses: Encourages students to engage in multi-turn conversations with ChatGPT to refine their prompts and explore how the tool generates different outputs based on the same or varied inputs.
   • Rephrase Prompts and Context-Specific Requests: Assigns tasks where students must ask the same question in different ways to understand how prompt specificity impacts output quality.
   • Tone and Style Modification: Tasks students with generating responses in various tones or styles, helping them understand how to manipulate AI output to suit different contexts or audiences.
4. Evaluating AI Output:
   • Assignments are designed to critically evaluate ChatGPT’s outputs, checking for factual correctness, logical consistency, bias, and hallucinated (invented) sources.
   • Students are also encouraged to use ChatGPT to generate arguments and then analyze these for logical fallacies and soundness.
5. Using AI for Analysis and Summarization:
   • Prompts students to use ChatGPT for summarizing longer texts, extracting specific information, or critiquing and interpreting literary and non-literary works.
   • Discusses the use of AI to simplify complex concepts into more accessible language or to reframe content in various formats for diverse audiences.
6. AI as a Tool for Creativity and Adaptability:
   • Encourages creative assignments like converting texts into different formats (e.g., a Shakespearean sonnet) or creating games using AI-generated content.
   • Assignments focus on fostering adaptability and creativity, encouraging students to see AI as a collaborative partner rather than a mere tool.

How Marketing Professors Can Use This Book

Marketing professors can use this book to get ideas for to introduce students to AI tools like ChatGPT and enhance their digital literacy, which is increasingly important in today’s tech-driven marketing landscape. Here are a few specific ideas:

• Integrate AI in Marketing Research (Chapter 7): Assign students to use ChatGPT to conduct preliminary market research, analyze consumer behavior, or generate creative marketing ideas. This will help them see the potential and limitations of AI in generating consumer insights and marketing strategies.
• Develop AI-Enhanced Marketing Strategies (Chapters 2, 8-18): Create assignments where students use ChatGPT to brainstorm marketing strategies or generate content (like social media posts or ad copy) tailored to different target audiences. This will teach students how to leverage AI for ideation and rapid content creation.
• Critical Evaluation of AI-Generated Content: Assign tasks that require students to evaluate AI-generated marketing content for biases, ethical considerations, or strategic soundness. This aligns well with discussions on ethical marketing practices and the importance of authentic, transparent communication in branding.
• Promote Adaptability and Innovation: Encourage students to use ChatGPT creatively by generating campaign ideas or re-imagining existing campaigns in different formats or for different platforms, fostering a mindset of innovation and adaptability.

Don’t hesitate to turn to ChatGPT or Claude (or your own favorite) to ask it to develop mini cases or assignments you want to give your students. Be sure to ask the AI to offer a “teaching note” so you have some additional ideas. By incorporating these AI-focused assignments, marketing professors can prepare students for a future where AI tools are integral to marketing strategy and execution.