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FLC: Pedagogy for the Age of AI

This guide was created for the Faculty Learning Community: Pedagogy for the Age of AI (2023-2024).

Crafting Prompts for GenAI

A well-crafted prompt can help you get the output you want from a GenAI model, and help reduce the chance of false results and false information, also known as hallucinations. There are a number of frameworks that can help guide you through creating and refining a prompt. One such framework is the CLEAR framework, developed by librarian Leo S. Lo from the University of New Mexico. 

The acronym CLEAR stands for Concise, Logical, Explicit, Adaptive, and Reflective-- five concepts that can help maximize the potential for a successful AI generated content. The Concise, Logical and Explicit elements help you engineer an initial prompt, while the Adaptive and Reflective elements reflect the fact that almost all forms of information seeking are iterative-- meaning you try something, figure out what is working and what is not working, and try to make improvements.

Concise: use only essential words. You do not want the AI tool to have to analyze unnecessary words. 

  • Needs Improvement Example: I would like to know if something like foam rolling is good for my muscles after I exercise. 
  • Good Example: Benefits of post-exercise foam rolling

Logical: be intentional about the order of ideas in your prompt. A logical structured prompt helps the AI model understand the context and relationships between various concepts. 

  • Needs Improvement Example: Is it important to swim?
  • Good Example: Health benefits of swimming? OR Does knowing how to swim make you safer? 

Explicit: provide precise instructions about the format, content, or scope of your desired output. 

  • Needs Improvement Example: Create a vegetarian diet plan for me
  • Good Example: Create a 7 day plant-based diet that includes at least 80 grams of protein per day 

Adaptive: After you've run your initial prompt, you might find ways to improve it. AI prompts are no different! After your initial prompt, review the content for additional keywords, context you can add, or additional information about parameters. 

  • Initial Prompt: Does high impact exercise improve bone health? 
    • Based on this prompt, we learn that high impact exercise does benefit bone health, but the benefits depend on frequency, intensity, and duration of exercise. 
  • Adaptive prompt: How frequent and at what intensity do you need to engage in high impact exercise to improve bone health

Reflective: Think critically about the AI tool's answer. Based on what you know of the topic, does it make sense? Does it seem grounded in reality, or is it possible the AI tool has hallucinated? You may also want to reflect on perspectives or experiences that are missing from the response.

  • Initial Prompt: Is there evidence that shows doulas make childbirth safer for women? 
  • Reflective Prompt: Is there evidence that shows doulas make childbirth safer for women of color?  

Content adapted from Lo, L. (2023) and from Georgetown University's Artificial Intelligence (Generative) Resources 

Read the full CLEAR article

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