Designing Effective Prompts for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Abstract: Students are already using chatbots in their everyday academic work. The question is no longer whether these tools belong in higher education, but how students and educators can engage with them in ways that strengthen rather than undermine learning. This workshop invites university teachers to explore how carefully designed prompts can turn chatbots from shortcuts into meaningful supports for learning.

The session begins by clarifying the capabilities and limitations of current chatbot tools. From there, it examines how prompt design can be used to encourage understanding, practice, feedback, and active engagement instead of passive answer generation. Participants will work with a range of example prompts, compare their results, and discuss the pedagogical implications of different designs. Based on these insights, they will create prompts tailored to their own disciplinary contexts, teaching formats, and learning objectives.

The workshop is practice-oriented throughout and focuses on strategies that are both pedagogically grounded and easy to implement in everyday teaching. It is particularly suited to educators who want to respond constructively to students’ growing use of AI without needing advanced technical expertise. Participants will leave with a sharper understanding of where chatbots can add value, where caution is needed, and how effective prompts can help keep learning at its core.

Requirements for potential participants: As the workshop includes hands-on activities, participants should bring a notebook or tablet with internet access and an account for ChatGPT or another chatbot. Please note that the prompts used in the workshop have been developed and tested with ChatGPT. Their performance may vary across other chatbot tools.

Expected outcomes: By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

  • identify the main opportunities and limitations of chatbot use in higher education
  • assess how chatbots can be used to support student learning in purposeful ways
  • analyze and compare prompt examples in terms of their pedagogical value
  • create effective prompts for specific teaching contexts and learning objectives

Maximum number of participants: 30

Format: 90 minutes

Used materials: Guide to Getting Good UHHGPT Results, UHHGPT Prompt Workbook

Workshop facilitators: Gunda Mohr, Susanne Wesner, Center for University Teaching and Learning, University of Hamburg

Organised by:

University of Alcalá
European Union

 

 

Partner Universities:

Université Paris-Saclay Lund University University of Szeged
Universidade do Porto Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München University of Alcalá
UiT The Arctic University of Norway Universitas Studiorum Universität Hamburg