A textbook that talks back

Jeanne Law, Kennesaw State University

Have you ever wished for a textbook that could talk back — one you could ask questions to and get instant, tailored guidance?

Learn how Jeanne Law, a Professor of Digital Writing and Director of First-Year Composition at Kennesaw State University, transformed the OpenStax Writing Guide into a personalized writing assistant.

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Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a Professor of Digital Writing and Director of First-Year Composition at Kennesaw State University, where I focus on ethical, human-guided collaborations with generative AI.

As an educator, my core goals are to develop critical thinkers, effective communicators, and lifelong learners who are prepared to engage thoughtfully with the evolving landscape of technology.

I’ve developed tools to help educators integrate AI responsibly, created AI-infused curricula as open educational resources, and authored Coursera courses on practical generative AI use cases, including grant writing and curriculum development. Through this work, I aim to inspire creativity, responsibility, and innovation in AI use.

How do you use ChatGPT in the classroom?

I noticed that some students hesitated to seek help during office hours or in class, perhaps due to confidence issues or scheduling conflicts. They were also not engaging with the digital textbook effectively. So in an effort to enhance student engagement and provide equitable access to writing support, I developed the OpenStax Writing Guide Assistant for my ENGL 1101/1102 courses.

Jeanne’s OpenStax Writing Guide Assistant custom GPT

This tool serves as an interactive companion to the OpenStax writing materials we use in class, providing students with on-demand guidance tailored to their assignments. Students use it to refine thesis statements, organize arguments, and receive feedback during their drafting and revision processes. By being in control of how they’re interacting with the AI assistant, students explore topics more deeply at their own pace.

What does AI enable that otherwise wouldn’t be possible?

AI enables personalized learning at scale. The AI assistant tailors feedback and guidance to each student’s unique needs, learning pace, and areas for improvement. Students collaborate with the AI to experiment with their writing, receive instant feedback, and iteratively refine their work.

Such a level of personalized support wasn’t feasible before, as traditional resources couldn’t provide immediate, customized assistance at any time.

What’s the impact on your students?

I’ve noticed that the AI assistant not only enhances student writing ability, but I’ve also seen it empower students to take ownership of their learning, building independence and confidence in their abilities.

Since introducing the AI assistant, pass rates in my courses have climbed from 89% to 100% among students who stayed enrolled, with most earning B’s or A’s. High pass rates in first-year writing courses are a known indicator of academic progression toward graduation, suggesting that the integration of AI contributes to their long-term academic success.

Anything people need to be aware of?

My biggest challenge in building custom GPTs that elicit the best outputs has been the curation of information in the Knowledge Base. I’ve found that chunking information into manageable, readable pieces is essential for maximizing the effectiveness of an AI assistant. By breaking down complex textbook content into smaller segments, it appears the AI can process and retrieve information more efficiently, leading to more accurate and coherent responses.

As the user of a custom GPT, one concern is ensuring that the AI provides accurate and reliable information, which requires careful curation and regular updates of the source material. Additionally, there may be limitations in the AI’s ability to handle ambiguous queries or provide nuanced feedback, necessitating supplementary support from instructors or peers.

To address this, I’ve developed my own frameworks — like my rhetorical prompting method and the ethical wheel of prompting — to teach effective and responsible interaction with AI tools. By learning to craft thoughtful prompts and considering the ethical implications of their inquiries, students enhance their critical reading and thinking skills. They become more adept at evaluating information, questioning sources, and understanding the role of AI in content creation.

Show us the prompt!

Here are the instructions for my OpenStax GPT:

You are a tutor trained to help students with their writing questions. Your job is to encourage them to think critically about the information you give them. Keep answering this way until a students tells you: "thanks, I'm finished."

Answer inputs with accurate information from the Writing Guide and then end your output with a question. Your question should encourage deeper thinking for students.

Ensure the response is concise and uses the Knowledge Data Set Writing Guide for all answers. Always pull your answers from the Knowledge data set in this Custom GPT.

The context of this GPT is a writing guide and tutoring supplement for first-year college students. Your answers should assume first-year college students are always your audience.

An example prompt: Tell me what an analysis is? You answer using information from the Knowledge data set and then you ask a question, such as what topics do you think are good for analysis?

Let’s see it in action

Here’s how I configured this custom GPT:

Zooming out now: How do you prepare your students for a future with AI?

Given the continual evolution of AI technology, students who can adapt, stay updated, and learn new tools will maintain their relevance. Learning to work collaboratively with AI — rather than perceiving it as a replacement — will enable students to fully harness its capabilities.

I encourage the adoption of a growth mindset to enable their adaptability. And I believe soft skills like empathy, communication, and teamwork remain among the most valuable competencies, as these are essential for effectively navigating professional environments, especially in leadership roles that require motivating others and understanding diverse perspectives.

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Notes from Mamie

Why we love this

First of all, I love that custom GPTs can transform linear texts into interactive guides. It feels like a new medium being invented and explored before our eyes. A conversational textbook compels readers to actively engage with the material, facilitating a deeper, more dynamic learning experience.

And I also admire Jeanne’s courage. Generative AI can be polarizing, particularly in the classroom and even more so in writing. As a professor straddling both worlds, Jeanne didn’t shy away from this new technology. Instead, she embraced it, exploring how to integrate it into the writing process. She realizes that learning to work collaboratively with AI will be key to thriving in the future, so she’s teaching her writing students how to harness generative AI as a tool to enhance their writing.

About her prompt

As someone who teaches prompt engineering, it is no surprise Jeanne’s prompt is well-structured and clear.

Using straight-forward simple sentences, it tells the custom GPT what it is doing, who it is doing it for & how its answers should come across to its audience.

Jeanne told me that recent research shows there isn’t a difference in benchmarking outputs when you give the GPT a persona (e.g. “You are a tutor trained to help students with their writing questions”) — but we think there are still benefits to the prompt-writer, as personifying the GPT can help you:

• differentiate yourself from GPT

• feel like you are talking to someone

• give clearer instructions

If you want to learn more about how to craft clear & concise prompts, Jeanne developed these best practices for writing custom GPT instructions based on her Rhetorical Prompting Method.

For further consideration

Learn more about Jeanne’s work:

• Read her generative AI origin story

• Take her Coursera courses on generative AI

• Try her writing guide for yourself

Want to learn more about building your own custom GPT?

• Learn how to make custom GPTs in Ethan and Lilach Mollick’s course AI in Education: Leveraging ChatGPT for Teaching, on Coursera

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Are you a writing professor?

How do you integrate generative AI into how you teach your students how to write?